The Toronto Blue Jays drafted Austin Martin fifth overall in the 2020 MLB draft, and he has encountered various trials and tribulations on his path to the majors.
COVID cut his senior season at Vanderbilt to just 16 games. Toronto aggressively promoted him to Double-A after he didn’t play in organized baseball for over a year. Then, he struggled to produce at the plate after Toronto traded him to the Minnesota Twins alongside starting pitching prospect Simeon Woods Richardson for José Berríos.
The former consensus top-100 prospect took longer than expected to reach the majors. Still, he debuted on March 30 this year after Royce Lewis suffered a quad injury on opening day. Despite being demoted to Triple-A St. Paul for a short stretch from late April to early May, he has quickly taken on an integral role in helping the playoff-hopeful Twins.
Through 68 games, Martin is hitting .241/.311/.337 with 40 hits, 11 doubles, one home run, and an 87 wRC+ over 184 plate appearances. He has a keen eye at the plate, evidenced by his well-above-league average 16.8% strikeout rate and 82.7% contact rate.
Since the beginning of August, the 25-year-old utility player has played six games at second base, three in left field, and three in centerfield. Martin has demonstrated natural versatility while heating up at the plate. He hit .286/.375/.393 with four hits, one double, one triple, and a 122 wRC+ over 32 plate appearances. Showing flashes of the player he was a “Vandy Boy,” his recent hot streak has helped the Twins win four out of seven combined games against the Cleveland Guardians and Kansas City Royals.
Although his recent results are encouraging, Martin is still performing 13% below league average and has a -0.3 Wins Above Replacement, according to FanGraphs (fWAR). fWAR is a cumulative statistic that takes into account a player’s performance over the whole season. Despite playing well after his most recent call-up, Martin’s early season struggles were significant enough to still consider him a negative contributor. Regardless, he played an integral role in the team’s ability to trim Cleveland’s AL Central crown while fending off the Royals, Boston Red Sox, Seattle Mariners, and Houston Astros for one of the two final Wild Card spots.
In the short term, he will continue to play second base alongside Willi Castro and Kyle Farmer. He will also play left field with Castro, Matt Wallner, Trevor Larnach, and Manuel Margot, as well as center field with Margot and Byron Buxton.
However, his role and overall responsibility will quickly change next season and beyond. Martin is a complimentary piece with the aforementioned players at the three positions. However, the Twins will probably count on him more next season because they will likely part ways with Farmer and Margot this upcoming season.
Furthermore, long-time fan favorite Max Kepler is a free agent and could part ways with the organization this offseason, meaning Wallner will presumably become the everyday right fielder in 2025. Martin will have to help pick up the slack of Farmer, Margot, and Kepler leaving, especially considering that the salary-strapped organization is unlikely to pursue costly veteran depth pieces.
Martin will continue to become an even more prominent consideration of the team’s long-term success because Castro will likely leave the team in free agency after next season. However, that is too far down the line to critically assess as so many things could happen between now and then. Nevertheless, Martin flourishing at the plate this late in the season is an encouraging sign that indicates he is trending toward becoming a long-term MLB-caliber player who can sustainably succeed at the highest level of organized competition.
