Hall of Fame slugger Frank Thomas thinks J.D. Martinez is the best hitter in Major League Baseball, and that’s not the sort of praise Martinez just earned overnight.
Martinez, whose career was on the ropes when the Houston Astros released him in March of 2014, has since reworked his entire swing. He was at the forefront of a revolution within the sport, and those adjustments are the reason he’s now considered an elite offensive talent.
But it’s not like something just all of a sudden clicked. Martinez has had to work to implement those changes, and he remains driven by a borderline obsession to get better.
On a recent episode of ESPN’s “Baseball Tonight” podcast, Buster Olney and Tim Kurkjian traded stories about Martinez’s maniacal urge to perfect his swing.
“I watched him take BP the other day with somebody videotaping his batting practice,” Kurkjian recalled. “He told me has had every BP for the last four years videotaped. After batting practice, he goes in and looks at what he was doing in BP. As he told me, ‘I’m kind of a feel hitter. I need some backup. I need some evidence for how my swing is going.’
“And that’s why he has videotaped every single time.”
Olney, meanwhile, shared a story he heard from Arizona Diamondbacks outfielder A.J. Pollock, who was teammates with Martinez after the D-Backs acquired the slugger at the trade deadline last July. Martinez put up borderline historic numbers — 29 home runs, 65 RBIs in just 62 games — and Pollock got an up-close look at the extra Martinez did to improve.
(“Pollock) heard that JD was driving 45 minutes to go hit at a batting cage with his hitting coach in the morning before games,” Olney said. “So AJ said, ‘No, you don’t have to do that. Come over to my house, I’ve got an indoor cage that’s built. We can do that.’ He said if they had a 10-game homestand, four mornings J.D. would come over with his coach. They’d be hitting at 11, 11:30. Naturally, A.J. went out there to join the conversation, join with some of the swings. He said J.D. would hit at 11 in the morning, then he’d hit early at the ballpark and then take regular batting practice.”
The results validate the work. Martinez signed a $110 million contract with the Red Sox in the offseason, and he’s lived up to the high expectations thus far. His .343 batting average is second only to teammate Mookie Betts in the American League, and the duo is tied for the league lead in home runs with 15.
Martinez earned AL player of the week honors Monday after hitting five home runs and driving in eight runs.
