New York Mets’ Fernando Martinez, right, is congratulated by teammate Daniel Murphy (28) after scoring on a double by Luis Castillo during the fourth inning of a spring training baseball game against the Baltimore Orioles, Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2009, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The Mets won 9-3. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson) Original Filename: Mets_Orioles_Spring_Baseball_FLJR107.jpg
Roberson/AP
Last night, I found myself in a pretty interesting to-and-fro with Sam Page of the excellent Amazin’ Avenue about whether Fernando Martinez was rushed in his development. It was spurred on, at least initially, by what Martinez told Jesse Sanchez of MLB.com this week:
“I know I’m a big league player, and I can perform at a high level,” Martinez said. “It’s in my hands, so I have to keep working hard and maybe earn a spot. Maybe I make it to the big leagues with the Mets or maybe another team, but I know I can do it. I just have to keep working and waiting for my opportunity.”
This sounds like the simple disappointment of a competitive young man who realizes they’d be more useful than Gary Matthews, Jr., so it’s hard to blame him there, but I also believe it is indicative of Martinez putting too much stock into the considerable “New York hype” that has been thrust upon him since he signed out of the Dominican Republic at the age of 16. After all, it’s pretty easy to do so when people begin to call you the “Teenage Hitting Machine” on message boards and blogs without, you know, actually seeing you physically hit a baseball.
Martinez, or “F-Mart” as he is so often called these days, is no longer a teenager, but he is only 21 years old. Fellow outfield prospects Desmond Jennings, Domonic Brown and Michael Taylor are all older than him. When the Mets called him up from Triple-A Buffalo at age 20 last May, he became the team’s youngest position player to make their major league debut since Jose Reyes did it at age 19 in 2003. It was an incredibly small sample size, but he looked over-matched during two brief stints with the big club, batting .176/.242/.275 with one home run and eight RBI in 91 at-bats before sustaining a injury to his right knee that required season-ending surgery.
Many believe that the Mets have made a habit of promoting him in spite of various injuries and mixed results. A large part of my criticism is that he needlessly started the 2007 season with Double-A Binghamton at age of 18 with just 76 professional games under his belt, including a .193 batting average in 119 at-bats for High-A St. Lucie. As Page astutely pointed out in our conversation, it was Tony Bernazard’s M.O. to challenge the most physically gifted players, so while I can understand someone playing against more advanced competition when warranted, I feel it became a legitimate concern with Martinez as the injuries began to pile up.
In order to expand the conversation, below I asked a pair of prospect gurus for their opinion on whether Martinez was “rushed” in his development. First, we have John Sickels of the indispensable Minor League Ball:
And here we have Toby Hyde, who has followed Martinez’s progression through his website Mets Minors:
There are really three moments when the Mets rushed Martinez: his assignment to Hagerstown in 2006, and his early August promotion to St. Lucie the same year and then his initial assignment to Binghamton to begin 2007.In the last two years, the Mets have slowed Martinez down, although in part I suspect that that has to do with the fact that there was nowhere else for him to go.
It’s popular to be down on Martinez right now, but I’m not so sure that’s a bad thing. A full -- and hopefully healthy -- season under the radar at Triple-A Buffalo should have him sufficiently major-league ready for the start of 2011. We can disagree about how the Mets have handled him up until this point, but there’s still plenty to look forward to here.
* Coincidentally, Martinez homered for Puerto Rico on Saturday afternoon in Venezuela, his second home run of Caribbean Series against Mexico.
