Martin: Surgery was good call
Now, he’s ready to hit, play again
BRADENTON, Fla. — Jason Martin has waited since Sept. 3, 2019, for a day like Tuesday.
That’s when the Pirates will take live batting practice at spring training.
It also will be the first time Martin faces live pitching since he left a game against the Miami Marlins after dislocating his left shoulder on a slide at home plate.
Martin scored the run and immediately felt pain shooting down his arm. He knew his season was in peril.
“Initially, I was like, ‘Dang. My shoulder is out of place.’ I know it’s not right,” Martin said. “When I was down there, I wanted the trainers to get me off the field and get back to the training room and get it back in place. After that, it was more of relief just because of the uncomfortable feeling that I was in.”
The Pirates medical staff got Martin’s shoulder back in place, but the pain wouldn’t go away. Martin went from scoring a run on a wild pitch to his season being over within milliseconds.
“It was tough,” Martin said. “I was looking forward to improving in September. I was starting to find some success, and all of a sudden, my season is over.”
Martin was one of the first Pirates minor leaguers to get called up during a season riddled with injury. He struggled early, which got him sent back down to Class AAA. He was recalled in June and then had the September call-up for roster expansion.
Martin learned a lot from that time in the big leagues.
“It’s easy to get caught up in all the lights and glitz and glamour, stadiums and all that,” Martin said. “It’s a lot bigger deal. It’s still baseball, but every game means more. It was an adjustment for me.”
The shoulder injury added an extra layer of growth for Martin. He had to decide if having surgery or rehab was the best route.
He started that rehab and was gaining positive results, but he did some research that changed his mind.
“I was going over the numbers on probabilities which said that if you rehab it to the best of its ability, you still have a 40% chance that you’re going to dislocate again,” Martin said. “I’d have to start the process over again. It wouldn’t be as bad because the more you dislocate it, it just gets loose so you can pop it back in, but it still hurts.”
Martin went with the surgery.
“Where I’m at in my career, I just decided it would be the better option to go and have the operation, get it taken care of,” Martin said. “It lowers the risk of the injury happening again, and the time that I had the injury and the time that I was going to have the surgery, I still had a pretty good chance of getting back, if not for spring training, early in the year.
“So we went that route, and I feel like it was a great decision. I feel good going into camp. I’m here to compete.”
Martin had to be patient with himself when it came to any upper-body training. Running is also tricky in a sling, so he had to adapt his cardio as well.
“We started off doing the lower body. Even when I was in a sling, out of surgery, we were still doing lower-body workouts,” Martin said. “Before I knew it, a couple of weeks, I was out of the sling doing more free-range stuff and mobility stuff.
“I’ve been doing pretty much full-body workouts since probably like a month out of surgery and been hitting it pretty hard.”
Martin will have a tough fight for a roster spot with the recent addition of Jarrod Dyson, but he’s also undeterred, especially after overcoming an injury.
“I can only control the work I put in each day,” Martin said. “I’m fired up for this season, and Pittsburgh is the place you want to be, so I’m doing everything I can to get up there.”