It’s no big deal for J.D.
Slugger handles hype in Sox’ spring debut
FORT MYERS — Anybody who thought that after playing only in Houston, Detroit and Phoenix that J.D. Martinez might get bedazzled by the bright lights and big-city attention that comes with being a Boston savior needs to reboot that thought process.
Based on the earliest of returns — yesterday marked his debut as a Red Sox — Martinez is not going to be fazed by the hoopla and hype.
Martinez is feisty when it comes to leaping to his own defense about being a good, not bad, outfielder, and he’s happily and willfully embedded in his own world of hitting, hitting and more hitting.
Everything else isn’t even noise, it’s completely silent.
Having blinders around here is an asset, not a fault.
“To me, I feel like you guys have the expectations, the fans and the media,” Martinez said after making two nice catches in left field and lining out twice in his two at-bats in the Red Sox’ 8-1 loss to the Twins. “I’m just going to go out there and play my game and do what I’ve been doing the last four or five years. As far as the pressure and stuff goes, just try and go out there and try to play my game. Obviously, ignore it. Playing in Boston, it’s a big market and there’s going to be a lot more, but I think it will be a good test of handling it.”
He appreciated the enthusiastic round of applause he received from a relatively sedate crowd at JetBlue Park — “It was humbling and pretty cool to get that kind of ovation in a spring training game,” he said — but it was clear he knew he was not there to put on a show for anybody.
“I don’t care,” Martinez said. “Like I said, I’ve done it for the last five years. I have nothing to prove right now in spring training. I just go out there and worry about me getting ready. That’s the way I’m looking at it.”
Martinez estimated he needs 60-80 at-bats to get his timing down. Few if any batters get that many atbats in a single spring training, especially someone off to a late start like Martinez. But as manager Alex Cora noted, fans might want to head to the back fields of JetBlue Park once the minor league games start in order to catch some action from Martinez.
“He wants at-bats,” Cora said. “He’s like, back in the day when guys didn’t play, they’ll go back there and get nine, 18 at-bats if both Double A and Triple A are playing, he’ll go out there, he mentioned that, which is good for him. He’s not behind at all.”
Martinez faced Jake Odorizzi, a very good starter who was able to work up and in enough to keep him from taking too solid of a swing on any one pitch. Martinez flew out to right field in his first at-bat, then got jammed on the second, when he lined out softly to center.
Martinez thought he did just fine.
“Good. I felt like I didn’t chase any balls outside of the zone, felt like I swung at some decent pitches,” Martinez said. “The ones I flew out on might have been a little bit up and in, but they were close enough, and I felt like I did a good enough job just not chasing.”
His goals were as modest as the results.
“Seeing the ball, just going up there and trying to slow the ball down best I can and swing at strikes, really,” Martinez said. “All I was really worried about, get a pitch over the plate and put a good swing on it, all I was trying to do.”
Earlier this week, Martinez voiced his displeasure at being viewed by some as a bad outfielder based on analytical stats that did not take into account that he was hurt the past two years.
Yesterday he emphasized he was taking his first game in some time as a left fielder quite seriously.
Far more experienced in right field than left — 439 vs. 284 games played — Martinez is less focused on the baffling wall behind him than reading the flight of the ball off the bat from a new angle.
“The left field wall — no, not really,” he said about where his defensive thoughts were going. “I’m more concerned about left field than the left field wall. Just getting back out there, it’s been a while since I played left field. Today was the first time, and I felt fine.”
It’s early, but Martinez is getting into the groove of being a Red Sox.
The more he’s here, the less it seems as if it’s a big deal at all for him.
And that’s a good thing.