One of the appeals of first baseman Eric Hosmer, who signed with the Padres this winter, was his leadership. The intangibles he brought, a skill set he has long been known to possess.
No one regarded J.D. Martinez as a downgrade in the clubhouse, or as anything other than a contributor to a positive environment. But he did not come with the clubhouse billing Hosmer did.
Was he undersold? Have his leadership credentials been fully understood?
Martinez, admittedly, is quiet — at least when it comes to the person he puts forth publicly.
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“Do I think I’m quiet personally?” Martinez said in an interview with NBC Sports Boston. “I think I’m quiet as far as media-wise and as far as attention outside of the locker room, outside of the field. I think in the locker room, amongst my teammates, I’m not quiet. But I think outside of that, as far as going to the media and being more [outspoken], that’s not me. I’ve never been one like that.
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"My dad has always told me, never be one to talk. You’re talking with your bat. Your bat and your glove. You never go out there ... and say bad things about certain people, and bad things about certain things and stuff like that. That’s never been me. I always say [if there is something negative being said about me], ‘Okay, that’s how you feel, great.’ Kind of walk away, and I play with it. Gives me that fuel, gives me that fire. I say go out there and prove everybody wrong with my bat and my glove.
“Show everybody that the fighting spirit that I’ve had, the way that my family’s always raised me and that [you] never give up.”
Martinez’s defining quality may be the difficulty of his path. He was not a top draft pick, and the Red Sox have a lot of those. If every major leaguer has had to scratch and claw and grind to get to the top spot, than Martinez has had to do so more than most.
Martinez easily could have said something bad about the Houston Astros, who cut him in spring training of 2014. The day he was let go, he instead projected confidence and calmness. He may face tougher days in Boston than he did when the Astros let him go, but the way he handled turmoil four years ago bodes well for future moments in the spotlight.
Martinez noted to reporters in 2014, as he was leaving the Astros’ clubhouse, that he did not want to say anything that would get him in trouble. It was a sign of composure, of restraint. (Even though most people can imagine what he was really thinking.)
“When that happened … I remember being, like, devastated,” Martinez said. “Kind of like, did I just really get released from, at the time, the worst organization in baseball? We were last place the last three years. And I just remember I was like, ’Is my baseball career over?’ But, in the back of my mind I kind of had this, like, little voice and this confidence saying, ‘No, I’m different. I’ve made a change.’”
Martinez indeed had made a change in the 2013-14 offseason, revamping his swing entirely.
“I’ve made this swing change that I did that offseason and I kind of just remember like, saying to myself, ‘Dude, like, you have this little gem, this little box that you’re dying to show everybody. But nobody kind of wants to see it.’ So in my mind I was telling myself, ‘Just keep going out there. Just keep grinding. Somebody’s going to give you an opportunity, and that’s where you can show everybody what you’ve learned and what you’ve done. That was kind of motivation.”
When Martinez got to his next team, the, Tigers, he found himself surrounded by veterans: Miguel Cabrera. Victor Martinez. He was a sponge, he was still learning.
In 2015, after his breakout year, he knew people doubted him still.
“In order to get to this level and do all the stuff and go through all those obstacles, I feel like you have to believe in yourself,” Martinez said that year. “If you don't believe in yourself, who is?”
But all he’s done from 2014 on is hit.
Martinez in 2018 is no longer a young kid bursting on the scene. Cabrera, interestingly, is known to be kind of shy with the media and public — but everyone knows how talented a hitter he is, and how revered he is. Martinez is not Cabrera, but perhaps he can provide leadership in a similar mode.
Said Martinez, “I think you can definitely be quiet and be a leader.”
