J.D. Martinez is best friends with a bunch of elephants now

Fresh off a season in which he kerplopped 43 homers, finished fourth in AL MVP voting and won his first World Series title, it's perfectly reasonable for Red Sox slugger J.D. Martinez to take a small break from the sport he just spent seven months dominating. But while many other big leaguers spend their offseason vacations lounging on a tranquil beach in Hawaii or wandering through the great museums of Europe, "Just Dingers" is doing something a little different. 

That's right, Martinez is in Thailand kicking it with some enormous elephants. The 6-foot-3, 220-pound Martinez looks downright Dustin Pedroia-sized next to those colossal beasts.
Much of Martinez's prodigious power comes from an insanely strong lower half that helps him drive the ball to all fields, but if he wants to catch up to his new elephant friends, J.D. still has some serious leg and glute work to do.

If this new friendship really is the real deal, then maybe Martinez could pull a few strings and get his new friends out to Fenway Park for a game next season to throw out a first pitch with their trunks.