Martinez discredits ‘weird year’
DH had his worst results since 2013
Whether you’re firing arrows at J.D. Martinez for his abysmal season or you’re one of the many who have become apathetic to anything Red Sox-related this year, he has a word for you.
Get off my back, was Martinez’s message on Friday afternoon.
In what was likely his final press conference of the 2020 season, Martinez sat down to answer questions, mostly about his .217 average and six home runs he’s hit through the Red Sox’ first 57 games. There are only three games left, the Sox are one of the worst-three teams in MLB and Martinez has been right in the middle of it.
“I’ve sucked, I haven’t been very good,” he said. “I feel like I’m not in the boat alone. I feel like there’s a lot of really, really good players and a lot of really, really good talent out there that’s, kind of, had the same season, if not worse, as me.
“I think it’s just a very weird year. You’re expected to perform at elite levels when there’s an entire epidemic going on in the world. It’s not really an excuse, but it’s tough. It’s a lot to ask.”
It’s hard to argue with Martinez’s point that it was a lot to ask of professional athletes to play this season. It was. Still, the players agreed to it, Martinez made a whole lot of money doing it and he probably won’t find a whole lot of sympathy from the general public on that one.
And he’s also right that a lot of historically great players are hurting this year. Typical MVP candidates Jose Altuve, Christian Yelich and Joey Votto are having some of the worst years of their careers. And two of last year’s top prospects, Pete Alonso and Vlad Guerrero Jr., have taken monster steps back.
And then there’s Martinez, whose WAR (wins above replace
ment) of negative- 0.9 ranks dead last among qualified big leaguers, according to Fan Graphs. There are only 11 players in the negatives. He’s No. 149 out of 149.
The poor season virtually guarantees he won’t opt out of his contract after the season, to which he said, “I’m probably not leaning (towards opting out).”
Martinez hasn’t been this bad since 2013, his third and final season of below-average performance in Houston before he was released.
But there’s a big problem with writing off the 2020 season and forgetting it ever happened.
Martinez is 33 years old, showed the worst exit velocity of his career and you just never know with guys in their mid-30s.
There’s no question that it’d be risky to bet on him to stink it up again next year. He’s been too good for a long time. But it’s also not fair to ignore 2020 completely.
What would that mean for all the other superstars who have had superstar seasons? That they were invalid?
Look at the WAR charts and the typical suspects are at the top: Jose Ramirez, Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts, Fernando Tatis Jr., Anthony Rendon, Jose Abreu, Manny Machado, Trevor Story and Trea Turner are the 10-best position players.
Do any of them stand out to you as out-of-nowhere breakouts? Of course not. Those are all names that should be in the top-20 or top-30 on a regular basis.
To ignore 2020 would be to ignore the success of all those guys.
And what about all the pitchers who have made Martinez look silly along the way?
Martinez accounted for his problems at the plate by pointing to some poor mechanics in his hips. It’s why he hasn’t caught up to a fastball, he said. And he believes he often wasted a full game’s worth of at-bats trying to swing with the wrong mechanics, in large part because he didn’t have real-time video analysis to recognize the problem and correct it.
It’s an issue he’s described before, due to new MLB rules that limit in-game video, and it’s an issue that could come up again in 2021, depending how MLB handles the in-game video next year.
“You get your whole routine and everything has kind of changed for everybody,” Martinez said. “Guys build their routines. They have been doing their routines for years and it’s kind of repetitive at this point saying the same thing over and over again.”
But why does that mean we’re going to write off the 2020 season?
“That’s a question you guys ask yourself,” Martinez said. “How are you guys going to take it? I’m going to ask you guys a question. Who wants to answer that? How are you guys going to take it in a couple of years when they look back at a 60-game season? Are they going to say, ‘J.D., I don’t know, give me some other players up there (not playing well): Yelich. (Javy) Baez. Kris Bryant. Are those guys bad players?’”
Truthfully, Martinez was pretty far down on the list of the Red Sox’ problems this year.
Their No. 1, 2, 3 and 4 spots in the starting rotation would head the list. They lost their closer and one of their set-up guys to a trade mid-season. They were short on bullpen depth as it was. They got nothing from second base and left field. And then maybe we’d get to Martinez.
The Red Sox were going to be horrible whether he hit .300 or .200.
It’s always refreshing to hear a player be honest, whether he’s making excuses or not, so we’re not going to jump all over Martinez for what he said on Friday.
But the idea of writing off the 2020 season as something that never happened is silly. The only way for Martinez to prove that 2020 was a fluke is to show up in 2021 and rake.