Leonys Martin is the power hitter the Tribe needs…wait what?

Tribe Trivia Time

One is a Seattle hitter, other from Cleveland. Name them.

A: .279/.392/.541, .398 wOBA, 86.2 mph EV, 17.5 LA, 22.7% HR/FB, 51% pull, 33.3% hard hit rate

B: .276/.391/.500, .386 wOBA, 88.2 mph EV, 18.4 LA, 18.8% HR/FB, 50% pull, 34.2% hard hit rate

— michael bode (@mgbode_WFNY) April 17, 2019

Every once in a while, a player starts behaving differently and the waiting starts. There is no set time on “this is who this guy is now”, good or bad. You wait a week, see if things regress, and if they don’t you wait another week. Every oh-fer comes with a “see I told you” when a guy is on a hot streak, and not even a home run or a string of good games can assuage fears of a drop off in talent at times. We see that with Jose Ramirez in this early going: his 5.3% walk rate, a .087 ISO, 27.1% soft contact rate all keep us hoping that the bottom didn’t fall out, and even after his amazing game Tuesday night,¹ most fans still have that pit in their stomach that he isn’t going to turn it around.

The other side of the coin is Leonys Martin. Despite playing a different defensive position, Martin has does his best to replicate the leadoff production of one Francisco Lindor, only with a better walk rate and worse strikeout potential. The production from Martin in 2019 is as good as you can expect from a player who almost died less than a year ago, which continues to be one of the best stories in the majors. A .258/.370/.468 slash line with a wRC+ exactly the same as Lindor’s in 2018 is the best offensive production Martin has ever had, but how he’s done it is even more impressive.  courtesy of Baseball Savant

Martin has always had, in years past, a fairly decent spray map, hitting to all fields with a decent enough variety of contact percentages, which fit with his approach as an on-base heavy player who had 30 stolen base potential. Martin was never thought of as a power hitter until this year, when his soft contact rate dropped to single digits and his pull percentage went up by almost the same amount. In pulling the ball with a 2mph increase in exit velocity and a higher launch angle, Martin has gone from spray hitter to middle-of-the-order bat in less than six months. Looking at the spray charts, 2018 and 2019 separated, you can see that Martin isn’t looking to go the other way almost at all, and until teams start shifting against Martin like they have against Carlos Santana and Jose Ramirez, there is almost no reason for him to try.

 charts courtesy of Baseball Savant

When Lindor returns to the leadoff spot, and it could be this weekend, Martin will move down the lineup, and with his power production, it will be welcome. Where, no one knows as of yet, as Cleveland is starting to round into shape offensively. Could he be second, pushing Jose back to the third spot he occupied most of last year? Will Martin bat behind cleanup hitter Santana and provide “lineup protection”? Wherever he hits, the question remains as we continue to watch: “is this the new Martin?” All signs point to yes.

1. His first home run, two walks, two steals. [↩]