Austin Martin has the perfect name.
It’s almost a homophone. Aston Martin is a British luxury car manufacturer that makes sleek automobiles with 12-cylinder engines. They’re a Lexus that drives like a Lamborghini; luxury on the outside with horsepower under the hood.
Like with the car, don’t judge the player on what you see on the outside.
Martin’s long hair and laid-back demeanor belie his speed on the basepaths and the athleticism that allows him to play all over the field. It masks his effort to improve his swing and the time invested in taking better routes in the outfield. It hides his competitive fire.
“I needed to get better in all aspects of my game,” Martin said at TwinsFest regarding his offseason work. “Put a lot more emphasis offensively, just because the past few years, I just felt like something was a little off.”
The Toronto Blue Jays took Martin fifth overall out of Vanderbilt in 2020. However, Martin was Keith Law’s No. 1 prospect in his draft class.
“Martin has exceptional hand-eye coordination and plus-plus bat speed,” Law wrote in 2021. “He’s probably best suited to third base, but the Jays intend to try him out at shortstop — which he has the athleticism and foot speed to handle — with third, second, or even center field all possibilities.”
Martin possesses game-breaking athleticism and a willingness to play all over. However, it’s been a gift and a curse. Teams haven’t known what to do with him because he doesn’t have a defined position or hitting approach. Therefore, they haven’t fully tapped into his potential.
Although he played third base at Vanderbilt, Toronto drafted Martin as a shortstop. The Jays traded Martin and Simeon Woods Richardson for José Berríos in 2021, and the Twins tried to add power to his swing. Later, they developed him as a gap-to-gap hitter.
Martin started his career at Double-A but debuted last year, partially because he had an indirect development path. As a prospect, Toronto and Minnesota tried to unleash his full horsepower. However, nobody knew how to get him into high gear.
Still, the Twins got a glimpse last season. He hit .253/.318/.352 (89 OPS+) and played 40 games in center, 40 in left, and 14 at second base.
Martin flashed brilliance and the growing pains typical of a developing player. Still, he left no doubt that he has latent game-breaking ability. When he reached base last year, Martin scored almost 65% of the time.
The next highest player, Jorge Mateo, had a 50% score rate.
Martin slowed things down during the offseason and broke his game into elements. He’s hoping to build on the promise he showed last season, focusing mainly on his offense.
“It’s just conversations,” he said. “Not only just going in and taking swings, but it’s watching film, watching video, just understanding how my body has been moving in previous years [compared] to how it used to move.
“It’s just a matter of getting back to how I feel in terms of being athletic inside the box.”
Martin’s efforts are focused on tapping into his athleticism, getting him firing on all cylinders. In the cage, it starts with his hand placement. “My hand placement was putting me in a lot of bad positions,” said Martin. “I had to be perfect at the plate.
“It wasn’t allowing me to get my bat through the zone or extend it through baseballs because I had my hands lifted up, so my bat would have to go down. I just had to be perfect. It’s a hard sport to try to be perfect every single time.”
Martin also is working on getting faster. He should make more contact with the ball by changing his hand placement and getting on base more frequently. He got on base 31.8% of the time last year.
If Martin can improve upon that number, he can use his speed to score in situations other players can’t. Martin is doing running drills and sprint work, working on his explosiveness to improve his foot speed.
“In previous years, I was always trying to emphasize putting a lot of weight on and trying to be super muscular,” said Martin, who’s listed at 5’11”, 185 lbs. “But this year, we decided to focus on exploiting more of what I’m already good at, which is just being twitchy and athletic.
“So just working more on explosiveness and moving weight fast, moving everything fast, just trying to be twitchy all the time.”
Increased foot speed will help Martin in center field, where he can back up Byron Buxton. However, he’s also working on his routes to the ball, which were occasionally inefficient last year.
“Just trying to get better with my routes, trying to get faster so even if I have a bad route, that speed will make up for it,” he said. “I’m not necessarily [trying to] revamp, but just get to where I know I’m capable of being.”
That’s always the goal with Martin. He’s uniquely athletic and capable of playing all over. However, Martin can’t maximize his impact until he gets on base more and takes more efficient routes in center field. Then, he’ll be firing on all cylinders.
