The Edgar Martinez Debate

In three years, it is very likely that David Ortiz will take his place among the immortals in Cooperstown, and deservedly so. Big Papi was one of the most feared hitters of the last two decades. He will always be remembered as one of the key cogs of the 2004 Red Sox, the team that broke the franchise’s 86-year championship drought, among other numerous postseason moments. I’m nearly 100 percent certain that he will be enshrined by 2024, his third ballot, at the absolute latest.

Edgar Martinez, who was essentially the west coast version of Ortiz, just was elected in January on his tenth and final ballot. It’s a shame that it took so long, as Martinez was actually a better player.

Though the Louisville logo on his bat is upside-down…
(c) CBS Sports

Now, for full disclosure, I’m a National League guy. I would prefer for the DH to go the way of the dodo. That could be a discussion for another day, because that’s not the point of this article. However, I have no problem casting my (theoretical) vote for designated hitters who are truly elite at what they do. Sorry, Harold Baines, I think you’re a nice enough guy and were a pretty solid player for twenty-two seasons. But there are at least fifty other players who deserve to be in the hall before you.

Ortiz and Martinez were both elite, all-time great hitters. Frank Thomas and Jim Thome were as well, but they at least played a better chunk of their career in the field. Perhaps it was because Edgar never got to play in big cities such as Boston, Chicago, and Philadelphia, but it seemed that a lot of his talent was overlooked from playing his entire career in Seattle. Martinez also never attained the big home run numbers that any of these other guys did, retiring with “only” 309 and breaking the thirty threshold only once.

But man alive, he was an on-base machine! He ranks 21st all-time in on base percentage at .418, and fourth all-time among hitters who played at all in the divisional era (1969-), only behind Barry Bonds, Joey Votto, and Thomas. The best season of his career was in 1995, where he had an OBP of .479, and this started off a five year stretch of reaching base at a 45.5% clip!

Let’s compare Martinez and Ortiz for a second. Ortiz finished his career with a .286/.380/.552 slash line, good for a .931 OPS and 141 OPS+. He also put up a career WAR of 55.3 in 2408 games, good for a rate of 43.5 games/WAR. And these numbers, especially his slash line, are fantastic.

Martinez slashed .312/.418/.515. His .933 OPS barely beats out Ortiz, but the fact that he played his career in the offense-sucking environment of Seattle puts his OPS+ at 147. He posted a WAR of 68.4, 13 higher than Ortiz, in 353 less games. That gives him a career rate of 30.0 games/WAR…that’s better than Thomas, Thome, and even Derek Jeter!

Plus, his flaming bats were invincible against the constant Seattle rain
(c) Viva la Vidro

The biggest reason that Martinez had a much better WAR than Ortiz was simple…his defense actually wasn’t that bad. From 1987-1994, the years where he primarily played third base, he posted a dWAR of +2.1. Unlike Ortiz, he was not a butcher in the field at all when he put on the glove, and the reason he was taken away from the defensive side was not due to his fielding ability. Edgar missed about three-quarters of the 1993 season and a decent amount of the 1994 season due to injury. By that time, he had established himself as the second best hitter in the Mariners lineup, behind some guy named Ken Griffey Jr. The Mariners did not want to lose his bat again for that long in 1995, and they also had another starting-quality third baseman in Mike Blowers. Because of the presence of Blowers, in 1995 Martinez was physically able to start 145 games, likely because manager Lou Piniella had him take a break from fielding in 138 of those games. He would never start more than seven games in a season in the field again.

One knock against Martinez when comparing him against Ortiz is that he was never able to give his team a championship, unlike Ortiz who was able to lead his team to three. This failure can partially be attributed to Martinez, as he never had much success in the ALCS. In the three that he participated in, he had a slash line of .156/.239/.234. Good for a pitcher. Not great for the guy who is supposed to be his permanent replacement in the lineup.

But, it would be incorrect to say that Martinez struggled in the postseason overall. He hit like a man on a mission in his four career ALDS (.375/.481/.781), bringing his career postseason slashline to .266/.365/.508. Not as good as Ortiz, but better than a lot of other members of the Hall. And still really good.

Plus, who could forget his role in the most iconic moment in Seattle baseball history?

 

(Btw, I’m shocked that Steinbrenner let Jack McDowell get away with that much facial hair. That’s not exactly a “well-groomed mustache”.)

This July, Edgar Martinez will be inducted into the Hall of Fame class of 2019, along with pitchers Mariano Rivera, Mike Mussina, Lee Smith, and the late Roy Halladay. He slugged a combined .731 off the quartet in 128 plate appearances. If the first unanimous member of the Hall says he was the toughest hitter he ever faced, then he deserves to be right next to him.