When Edgar Martínez is mentioned in the world of baseball, the word power immediately comes to mind. The designated hitter and in only three of his 16 seasons did he have to use the glove more than 100 times.
However, his ability to hit hard but also have good contact dictated that he be in the lineup day after day.
In the years I played, the DH was not used in the two leagues and now it is. That means he’s going to be part of baseball for many years,” said the Puerto Rican. This evolution has allowed the designated hitter to gain more prominence, but it has also modified his traditional role.
“I think that now there is no DH like there was before, which was usually one and he was in the lineup every day. Now they can be different players, they are constantly changing.” According to Martínez, this trend responds to the flexibility that teams look for in their lineups, allowing different players to take the DH position according to the team’s needs. “The DH can be one today and tomorrow, if they want to give a player a rest, they put him as designated player. Let’s wait to see how it evolves,” he added.
When you talk about designated hitter, you talk about power and expect long-shot hits. Currently, the average batting average in MLB is .244.
However, a man like Edgar Martínez, who finished his career with an average of .312 and accumulated 309 home runs in 18 years, hopes that statistics that today seem to matter less will once again take center stage.
“This has been part of the evolution of baseball. I trust that it will go back and much more credit will be given to the average, OBP, contact and the average that we are seeing now go up. We can see the type of player that Bobby Wit is, he hits 300, he also hits home runs, that type of player is going to return,” declares the Puerto Rican.
Martínez also talked about Shohei Ohtani, the Japanese sensation who has revolutionized baseball by combining skills as both an elite pitcher and hitter.
“What he is doing this year has been incredible and now that I see that he is designated for the entire season, it is something incredible,” he commented in admiration. The former Seattle designee highlighted that Ohtani’s future remains uncertain, but his performance as a hitter is unquestionable: “Let’s wait and see, I don’t know if he’ll pitch next year. It all depends on what the organization wants to do, but with “The numbers he has put up this year, I imagine that they will leave him as designated for years and years.”
When asked about the award that bears his name, given to the best designated hitter of each season, Martínez confessed that he would never have imagined it. “Nobody was going to think, right?, that this award was going to bear my name. It is an honor that it does,” he commented humbly.
When talking about the designated hitter’s numbers and potential, Martinez couldn’t help but mention Ohtani as a favorite for this season’s MVP.
“The numbers he has are incredible. 50-50 had not been done,” he said in reference to the possibility of Ohtani reaching 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases. For Martínez, that feat positions him as a solid MVP contender, regardless of his position on the field: “I think the numbers speak for themselves, those numbers are difficult to replicate, and I don’t think the evaluation should be different between DH and other players. It’s very difficult to do what he did.”
