Orelvis

Martinez

In spite of his former status as a top prospect, Martinez cleared waivers after being DFA’d by the Blue Jays earlier this month and was released. He was a big disappointment this year, hitting .176/.288/.348 in 99 games in Triple-A, after serving a PED suspension last season, but he has rare power for a 23-year-old infielder, and he’d definitely seem to be worth a flier.

Martinez was one of the more promising shortstop prospects in the game just a couple seasons ago, but his career has gone sideways since being hit with an 80-game PED suspension last summer. The 23-year-old has struck out nearly 30 percent of the time this season at the Triple-A level while batting just .176/.288/.348 with 13 homers over 99 games. There’s likely another organization out there willing to take a shot on him as a reclamation project, but his days as a top prospect are over.

The Jays needed to clear a spot on their 40-man roster for Alek Manoah who was activated from the 60-day injured list and optioned to Triple-A Buffalo on Thursday, and unfortunately for Martinez he was the odd-man out this time around. The 23-year-old infielder has slashed a cringe-inducing .176/.288/.348 with 13 homers, 32 RBI and a 112/47 K/BB ratio over 394 plate appearances at the Triple-A level. There’s a chance another team could be willing to take a shot on him on waivers.

Martinez got off to a brutal start this year, going 2-for-36 in his first 12 games for Buffalo, but he showed improvement in posting an .811 OPS last month and he’s on a tear now, having gone 8-for-13 in the current series against the Mets’ Triple-A affiliate. The problem now is that the Jays are treating him strictly as a second baseman of late, and he has both Andrés Giménez and Ernie Clement ahead of him there.

Concerns about his defense prevented Martinez from having a real shot of making the Jays this spring, but hitting hasn’t typically been an issue; he had an .863 OPS in Triple-A debut as a 21-year-old in 2023 and came in at .869 at the level last year. This season, he’s 2-for-32 with 18 strikeouts. Clearly, it’s going to be a while before the Jays are motivated to give him a look.

Orelvis will miss the opener while he recovers. The 23-year-old will hopefully be able to return to action in the coming days.

Martinez mashed his way to the big leagues last summer, posting an .869 OPS with 17 homers in 74 games for Triple-A Buffalo, before serving a league-issued 80-game PED suspension. The 23-year-old projects as a cheap power source in deeper mixed leagues once he gets back to the majors, but there isn’t an opening in Toronto at the highest level entering the regular season.

Martinez picked up the bone bruise when he was hit by former teammate Jordan Romano with a 96 mph fastball. Martinez will likely sit until the soreness subsides, but this shouldn’t affect his availability to begin the year. It doesn’t seem likely he’ll be a part of the Opening Day roster, but Martinez is worth keeping an eye on as a potential power producer.

The Blue Jays aren’t sure Martinez is far along enough defensively to help in the infield right now, but they do have the DH spot open if they ever wanted to go that route. To have any chance of making the Opening Day roster, Martinez would almost surely have to clearly outhit Will Wagner this spring. So far, he’s 3-for-7 with a homer and two walks and Wagner is 0-for-6 with three strikeouts.

“He’s got to put a lot of work in. It’s going to be an interesting camp for him,” Schneider said. Most of the other infield options in Toronto are contact-first hitters with little power, so Martinez would make sense as a bench infielder who has big power in his bat. However, that will only happen if he can show the team that he can be at least an adequate defender.