LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — The New York Yankees made a big splash over the weekend. Now Dave Dombrowski is expected to react during baseball’s winter meetings this week.

It’s like the old days in the Boston-New York rivalry: the Yankees load up on power, while Sox fans wait for their team to keep up with the Steinbrenners.

There was considerable angst on Boston sports radio as word spread Saturday that Giancarlo Stanton was headed to the Bronx. Critics were conceding the division, if not the pennant, to New York.

On the way to the winter meetings at Disney World, I joked with one member of the Red Sox baseball ops group that some fans seemed to think the 2018 season was a lost cause. “I guess we should stay home,” the executive quipped.

It’s easy to laugh about an imbalance of power in December. It won’t be funny if the Yankees still hold that edge in March. There’s no doubt the pressure on Dombrowski, Boston’s president of baseball operations, has been increased dramatically in the past few days.

For weeks we’ve been talking about the power available on the free-agent market. It’s still there. While the Yankees celebrated the arrival of Stanton and the Angels landed Japanese two-way threat Shohei Ohtani, the rest of baseball has watched as offseason moves have crawled along at a glacial pace.

Now it’s time for the Red Sox to work some magic again in the Magic Kingdom. J.D. Martinez is the most powerful bat on the market, and the Sox will undoubtedly have to overpay him to become the cornerstone of a retooled lineup. They’ve been lacking his kind of power since David Ortiz retired. With Stanton and his MLB-best 59 home runs setting up shop at Yankee Stadium, the Red Sox need Martinez more than ever.

Why would Boston have to overpay a 30-year old slugger coming off the best season of his career? Because the Sox have somehow become a team players don’t seem to want to play for. Stanton didn’t list Boston as a place he’d waive his no-trade clause to go. Ohtani quickly eliminated Fenway as a potential big league home when choosing his landing spot.

We’ve been down this road before. In 2001 Dan Duquette overwhelmed Manny Ramirez with an eight-year deal worth $160 million. At the time Duquette was criticized for paying far above what the market for Ramirez was worth. Yet it wound up being a necessary deal for the Red Sox, who added David Ortiz two years later to form one of the greatest one-two punches ever.

Now the Sox are reeling from the psychological punch of knowing the Yankees have Stanton in the same lineup as Aaron Judge. They hit a combined 111 homers last year. The entire 2017 Red Sox roster hit 168.

A year ago, Dombrowski passed on free-agent slugger Edwin Encarnacion as he tried to keep his payroll under the luxury tax cap. This year he has publicly stated that he won’t be handcuffed by the same restraints. That’s why he must be willing to overspend if that’s what it takes to land his target.

There were reports over the weekend that the Sox were also interested in trading for Cubs slugger Kyle Schwarber. Last month there were other reports that Dombrowski had engaged the White Sox in discussions surrounding Jose Abreu.

Either would be a great fit in Boston. And neither should dissuade Dombrowski from landing a big fish like Martinez or a fallback free agent like Eric Hosmer or Carlos Santana. The Sox are two bats away from having the type of middle-of-the-order duo that can put fear in the hearts of pitchers. One slugger would help; two could go a long way toward stabilizing the AL East race.

Over the years, many Red Sox general managers have told me you can’t make over the roster based on what the Yankees do. While that’s true, there’s also no denying that this is a Red Sox team that has won back-to-back division titles for the first time. Despite the arrival of Stanton in New York, this Red Sox team is built to be a playoff contender now. We’ve seen what a lack of power has done to their playoff hopes in 2016 and 2017. The Red Sox need to ensure the same doesn’t happen to Alex Cora’s team.

Tom Caron is a studio host for Red Sox broadcasts on NESN. His column appears in the Portland Press Herald on Tuesdays.