Edgar Martinez: Finally in the Hall of Fame

Edgar Martinez, the longtime designated hitter for the Seattle Mariners, has been elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in his 10th and final year on the BBWAA (Baseball Writers Association of America) ballot. Martinez was named on 363 out of the 425 ballots cast for an 85.4% share, far above the 75% needed for enshrinement in the Hall. Martinez’ vote share matched exactly the total of the late Roy Halladay.

Edgar will be joined on stage this summer by Mariano Rivera (the first ever unanimous selection), Mike Mussina and Eras Committee selections Lee Smith and Harold Baines.

A .312 career hitter with a .418 on-base%, Edgar was tremendously undervalued for a long time. This was a pure, professional, dangerous hitter. His distinctive batting style (in which he held his hands very high), delivered him a career 147 OPS+, which means that he was 47% better than the average hitter. That is identical to the career OPS+ of Hall of Famers Mike Schmidt, Willie McCovey, and Willie Stargell.

Despite his sublime slash line, for a long time, Martinez was dismissed by a majority of the electorate because of his relatively low “counting” statistics. He received less than 40% of the vote (75% is needed for induction) in his first six appearances on the ballot. In recent years, though, a cause emerged around the hitting savant, his vote total surged and Martinez finally will be recognized for his greatness with a plaque in baseball’s great shrine in Cooperstown, New York.

Martinez is just the 6th player in the modern voting era (since 1966) to be inducted into the Hall in his final year of eligibility. Until 2014, players had 15 years of eligibility on the ballot. That timeline was shrunk in ’14 to 10 years. The reduced years of eligibility has apparently focused the voters’ minds to vote for players sooner rather than later.

WP Table Builder

Mr. Mariner

As the third member of the great Seattle teams from the 1990’s to be inducted into the Hall in the last five years (following Randy Johnson and Ken Griffey Jr.), Edgar Martinez has a special place in the hearts of Mariners fans. Unlike Johnson, Griffey and the other mega-star from the late 1990’s (Alex Rodriguez), Edgar spent his entire career with the M’s.

Near SafeCo Field, the Mariners’ jewel of a ballpark, a street was renamed “Edgar Martinez Drive.”

Although he had to wait a full 10 years on the ballot, once you’re in the Hall of Fame, nobody cares how long it took or what year you were inducted. Mariners fans certainly don’t care. They’re rejoicing with their favorite star.

“I think the wait, I think I’m more mature right now. I think I’ve enjoyed it more at this point with my family, the way my kids are older now and it just has a lot of meaning, even more meaning now… The wait, actually it worked out well for me.”

— Edgar Martinez (on MLB Network, Jan. 22, 2019)

Cooperstown Cred: Edgar Martinez (DH)

• Inducted to the Hall of Fame in 2019 (10th time on ballot, 85.4% of the vote)
• Seattle Mariners (1987-2004)
• Career: .312 BA, 309 HR, 1,261 RBI, 2,247 Hits
• Career: 147 OPS+, 68.4 WAR (Wins Above Replacement)
• .418 career on-base% (4th best in last 50 years) (min 5,000 PA)
• 147 career OPS+ (tied for 9th best in last 30 years) (min 5,000 PA)
• 2-time batting champion
• Hit over .300 ten times
• Led league in on-base% three times
• 7-time All-Star

(Cover Photo: The News Tribune)

The balance of this piece was originally published on January 23rd, 2018. It was updated in anticipation of the 2019 voting results and updated again to reflect his election to the Hall.

Career Highlights

Edgar Martinez was born in New York City on January 2, 1963. When he was just two years old his parents divorced and Edgar moved to Puerto Rico, where he was raised by his grandparents.

Young Edgar became hooked on baseball after watching Puerto Rican star Roberto Clemente lead the 1971 Pittsburgh Pirates to the World Championship.

While playing college ball at American College in Puerto Rico, he was signed for $4,000 by the Seattle Mariners.

Long Road to the Major Leagues

Martinez was 20 years old when he began his professional career as a third baseman in Bellingham, Washington, where he hit just .173 in 32 games. From his SABR Bio, Edgar had two big personal adjustments to make. The first was his lack of proficiency in English. The second was the cold (“I couldn’t believe people could live in such cold weather”). In the 48 continental United States, Bellingham is the furthest you can possibly be from Puerto Rico. The city is in the northern and western-most part of the state, with Vancouver, Canada just across the border.

By 1987, his age 24 season, Martinez had become a professional hitter in the minor leagues. He hit .329 with a .907 OPS for the AAA Calgary Cannons. That was good enough for a September call-up to the Mariners, where he hit .372 in 13 games.

Still, in 1988, the Mariners decided to send Martinez back to the minors. He was blocked at third base by veteran Jim Presley (an All-Star in ’86), who hit .230 with a .635 OPS while Edgar slashed .363 BA/.467 OBP/.581 SLG at Calgary.

Opening Day Starter in 1989

When the Mariners broke spring training camp in 1989, Edgar Martinez was the team’s starting third baseman. He was penciled into the opening day lineup by new manager Jim Lefebvre along with rookies Ken Griffey Jr. and Omar Vizquel, each playing in their first MLB game. Unfortunately, Edgar got off to a slow start, going 1 for 10 in his first four games (all losses by the M’s). Presley was back in the lineup at 3rd base for the 5th game of the season.

Presley also got off to a slow start so Edgar kept getting the bulk of the starts. However, he was still hitting just .188 after his first 15 games so he lost the starting job to the veteran.

Martinez was a bench player in May (only logging 21 plate appearances). Although he hit .368 for the month he was optioned back to Calgary. Just about two weeks later, Edgar was back with the Mariners. He never found his groove, however, and was shipped back to Calgary after August 1st. After another September call-up, he finished the season with a .240 BA, .619 OPS and 74 OPS+ in 196 PA. 1989, which started with such hope and promise, turned out to be the worst season in Edgar’s young career.

Edgar returned to Puerto Rico after the ’89 season to play Winter Ball and it suited him. He hit .424 in 43 games and shared league MVP honors with Carlos Baerga.

Finally a Full Time Player

Presley was traded in the off-season allowing Edgar Martinez to finally become a full-time starter at the age of 27, in 1990. As Jay Jaffe notes in his FanGraphs profile of Edgar, Martinez re-worked his swing to incorporate a high leg kick, which boosted his bat speed, allowing to pull the ball with greater frequency.

Martinez was the M’s full-time third sacker from 1990 to 1992. He hit over .300 each season, cresting with a .343 BA in 1992, which was good enough to win the A.L. batting title. By the metrics, Martinez was also a solid defensive third baseman (at least in ’90 and ’91); he averaged 6.1 WAR per season in those three campaigns.

In ’92, Edgar’s .404 OBP and .544 SLG gave him an OPS+ of 164 (64% better than league average), 3rd best in the league behind only Mark McGwire and Frank Thomas. For his efforts, Martinez made his first All-Star team, won his first Silver Slugger and finished 12th in the MVP voting.

Injuries short-circuited both Edgar’s 1993 and 1994 campaigns. In ’93, a freak injury in spring training, in which he pulled his left hamstring and partially tore the muscle above his knee, limited him to 42 mostly ineffective games for the season.

In 1994, on Opening Day, Martinez was hit on the left wrist on a pitch from Cleveland’s Dennis Martinez. Although it was just a bruise and he would return a few days later, Edgar never really the same for the rest of the season. He hit .285 with a 122 OPS+ in 387 plate appearances. The ’94 season was also shortened, of course, by the players’ strike.

At the end of the ’94 campaign, the 31-year old Edgar Martinez had just 2,638 PA under his belt, an average of just 330 PA for each of his first 8 seasons in which he wore a big league uniform. Although he was a .303 hitter with a 133 OPS+, there was nothing about his 62 career home runs or 686 career hits that screamed “future Hall of Famer.”

That all changed in 1995.

The Marvelous 1995 Season

Although Edgar Martinez was a decent fielder at the hot corner, because of the injuries and the fact that the Mariners had another solid third baseman (Mike Blowers), Edgar became a full-time designated hitter in 1995, just in time for the best season of his career.

In that sensational campaign, one in which he played every single team game, Martinez posted career highs in all three “slash” line categories, with a AL-leading .356 batting average, a MLB-leading .479 OBP and a .628 SLG. This translated to a major-league leading 1.107 OPS and 185 OPS+. In the meantime, Edgar led the majors with 52 doubles and the A.L. with 121 runs scored.

For the season, Edgar was third in the MVP voting (behind Mo Vaughn and Albert Belle). He also picked up his second Silver Slugger Award.

Martinez’s finest moment came in the fourth and fifth games of the first ever American League Division Series, when he almost single-handedly lifted the Seattle Mariners (in the playoffs for the first time ever) into the ALCS by defeating the Yankees.  Edgar hit a 3-run home run and Grand Slam in Game 4, the latter of which (off closer John Wetteland) broke a 6-6 tie in the 8th inning.

Of course, in Game 5, he hit the 11th inning game-winning double down the left field line immortalized by Ken Griffey Jr.’s amazing dash around the bases. As Jaffe noted in The Cooperstown Casebook, that moment is so iconic that “The Double” has its own Wikipedia page. Go ahead and Google it (“the double baseball”) and see what you get. The Double never gets old: you can watch it here.

Sometimes the Hollywood script doesn’t quite match the MLB calendar. After the thrilling win over the Yankees, the M’s could not parlay that into the World Series. They fell in 6 games in the ALCS to the heavily favored Cleveland Indians, who had won 100 games in the 144-game strike-shortened season.

1996-2001: At the Top of his Game

Although the 1995 season was the best of his career, it was the beginning of a 7-year stretch in which Edgar Marintez was simply one of the best hitters in baseball. Take a look at the consistency of Martinez from year to year, starting in ’95:

WP Table Builder

During the six seasons following the magical ’95 campaign, Edgar made 4 more All-Star squads, won two more Silver Sluggers and finished 6th in the MVP voting in 2000.

Besides the superior extra base numbers (powered by 291 doubles from ’95-’01), Edgar also drew 750 walks compared to just 637 strikeouts during those seven seasons.

2002-2004: Edgar’s Final Three Campaigns

Edgar Martinez, though 39 years old entering the 2002 season, still seemed like he was at the top of his game. In the 10th game of the season, however, he ruptured his left hamstring while running out a ground ball to first base.  The injury would cost him over two months of playing time and, upon his return, he wasn’t quite up to Martinez standards, though he still finished the campaign with a 139 OPS+.

Healthy in 2003, Martinez played in 145 games, hitting .294 with 24 HR, 98 RBI, a .406 OBP and 141 OPS+. It was good enough for him to make his 7th and final All-Star squad and win his 5th Silver Slugger Award.

In 2004, at the age of 41, Edgar remained healthy, playing in 141 games. However, his age finally started to show itself in his production. His slash line was .263 BA/.342 OBP/.385 SLG, translating to a below-average 92 OPS+. He also struck out a career high 107 times (his only year over 100) while drawing just 58 walks. He decided during the season that 2004 would be his final campaign.

Edgar’s Legacy in Seattle

On the last day of the 2004 season, the Mariners called it “Edgar Martinez Day.” At the same time, Commissioner Bud Selig announced that the annual Designated Hitter Award would be forever known as the Edgar Martinez Award.

Shortly after the season was concluded, Martinez became the first Puerto Rican to be awarded the Roberto Clemente Award for his charitable work in the Seattle community. As his SABR Bio notes, it was a fitting award for Martinez to win because he became interested in baseball largely because of Clemente.

“Clemente was my idol as a child and to get this award is very special to me.”

— Edgar Martinez, Seattle Times, Oct. 27, 2004

Edgar is now a Hall of Famer. For posterity, here is the case I laid out in favor of his induction before the votes were tallied.

The Hall of Fame Case For and Against Edgar Martinez

As a potential Hall of Famer, Edgar Martinez’ candidacy suffered from two things: the designated hitter factor and the fact that he didn’t become a full time player until the age of 27, which kept his overall numbers a little low. His 309 career home runs and 2,247 career hits are less than you would expect from a Hall of Fame hitter, although the hit total is artificially low because of his 1,283 walks.

Regarding the DH factor, that was a deal-breaker for some baseball writers, who feel it’s not a “real” position. Two things to note about that, however. First, Martinez would be the fourth player who played more games at DH than any other to enter the Hall of Fame. The others are Paul Molitor, Frank Thomas, and the recently inducted Harold Baines.

The second thing about the DH factor is that Martinez played the position because that’s what the team wanted. He was not a bad third baseman. In fact, using “Total Zone Runs” from FanGraphs, Edgar was the 7th most productive third baseman defensively in all of MLB from 1989-94. The six players in front of him in those rankings (Robin Ventura, Matt Williams, Gary Gaetti, Terry Pendleton, Wade Boggs and Ken Caminiti) all were multiple Gold Glove Award winners.

Although being the team’s DH surely benefited him as he played into his late 30’s, it’s not fair to say that the man could not field a position on the diamond.

The Peak Years for Edgar Martinez

The prime case for the Hall of Fame for Edgar Martinez was that, for a seven-to-ten year period of time, he was one of the very best hitters in all of Major League Baseball.

Like recent inductees Mike Piazza, Tim Raines, Jeff Bagwell, Vladimir Guerrero, Chipper Jones and Jim Thome, Edgar had a 10-year stretch where, by a variety of measures, he was one of the very best hitters in baseball. During those best ten years (1992 to 2001), only Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire and Frank Thomas bested his 159 OPS+.

The last row (Rbat) represents the number of approximate “runs above average” each player was; it’s the hitting component of WAR.

WP Table Builder

Taking a shorter view, a seven year span that started during the Mariners’ magical 1995 season, Edgar was arguably the best overall hitter in baseball not named Bonds.

WP Table Builder

As you can see, when it comes to getting on base and slugging combined (OPS+) or creating runs in general from hitting (RBat, the hitting component of WAR), Martinez reigned supreme.

Where Martinez falls short on these charts is in the traditional power statistics of home runs and runs batted in.

The RBI Issue

Let’s tackle the RBI issue for a moment. Edgar ranked 17th in RBI from 1992-2001 and 10th from 1995-2001. Now, many sabermetricians will argue that RBI is an overrated statistic because it is too dependent on situations; needless to say a 4th place hitter gets more RBI opportunities than a leadoff hitter. But Martinez was a cleanup hitter more often than not and he was on a good offensive team.

When looking at his career splits on Baseball Reference, you can see that Edgar drew 57% of his career walks with men on base even though those only accounted for 48.5% of his career plate appearances.

More notable, Martinez drew 40% of his career bases on balls with runners in scoring position even though those situations only occurred in 29.5% of his plate appearances.

These type of splits are also seen with the incomparable Bonds: during Edgar’s 7-year peak of brilliance (in the table above), Bonds had only 9 more RBI than Edgar. Both men, despite playing on generally good teams with good supporting casts, were both feared by opposing pitchers and also extraordinarily disciplined hitters. Neither would swing at a bad pitch just in the effort to drive in the runners on base. Each would accept the walk if that’s all the pitcher was offering.

“I had two goals: Get on base and make the opposing pitcher throw six, seven, eight pitches. If you make him work, you and your team have the advantage, and your teammates get to see more pitches.”

— Edgar Martinez, The Sporting News, Dec. 18, 2018

Anyway, in all other metrics besides HR & RBI, Edgar Martinez was simply one of the best hitters in baseball for a long period of time. To have posted the 5th best overall WAR for position players for a seven year period is remarkable for a designated hitter since WAR punishes hitters severely for not playing in the field. In the batting component of WAR, only Bonds was better for these seven years.

Edgar Martinez By the Numbers

Anyway, to continue “the case for” Edgar Martinez, here are a few neat statistical tidbits that put his great career into context:

• Despite his late start, Martinez’ 3,619 career times on base is better than the career total of 96 Hall of Fame position players.
• As a late bloomer, Martinez is in some significant company. There have been 51 players in MLB history who have logged 5,000 or more plate appearances in their age 32 seasons and beyond. Edgar’s 153 OPS+ for those years is third best is the history of the game, behind Bonds and Babe Ruth and just ahead of Hank Aaron and Willie Mays.
• Edgar is also 4th in RBI (behind Cap Anson, Ruth and Bonds) for age 32+ players.
• For players of all ages, he’s one of 15 players (minimum 5,000 PA) with a .310/.410/.510 (BA/OBP/SLG) slash line. The others? 10 Hall of Famers, Manny Ramirez, Shoeless Joe Jackson, Todd Helton (eligible for the Hall for the 2nd time in 2020) and the still active Joey Votto.
• Thanks to Ryan Spaeder in The Sporting News for this one: Edgar is one of five players in MLB history with at least six straight seasons with a slash line of .320/.420/.550. The others? Ted Williams, Lou Gehrig, Rogers Hornsby and Ruth.

More fun from Spaeder’s piece, for those worried that Edgar didn’t play quite long enough, logging “only” 8,674 plate appearances:

• Martinez would have to return to baseball and go 0-for-278 for his career batting average to dip below .300.
• Martinez would have to return to baseball and go 0-for-386 without reaching base safely for his career on-base percentage to dip below .400.
• Ken Griffey Jr. had a .385 OBP from 1995 to 1997. Martinez, his teammate, had a .386 OBP during that same stretch — when batting with two strikes against him.
• Edgar had two seasons (1995 & 1996) in which he hit 25 HR with 50 doubles and 100 walks. Only five other players in baseball history have done it even one time.

Why Edgar Martinez and not (fill in the blank)…..

I would say that, by the numbers, the case was quite compelling for Edgar Martinez to make the Hall of Fame. However, we have had a super-stacked ballot in recent years, with many superb hitters from whom one could also make impressive lists.

Edgar was on the 2019 ballot with outfielders Bonds, Ramirez, Gary Sheffield, Sammy Sosa, Larry Walker and Lance Berkman, along with first basemen Fred McGriff and Helton.

So, let’s compare Edgar the DH to five of these esteemed outfielders and two first sackers. I’m removing Bonds from the chart because, of course, he would dominate everything. Bonds is in a unique category unto his own.

The eight named players are ranked by park-adjusted OPS+.

WP Table Builder

Martinez vs the Others on the List

On this list, Manny is clearly the best hitter. His WAR is only slightly higher than Edgar’s because Manny hurt his value by being a severely below average defensive player. But Manny also has failed two PED tests and was only on his third BBWAA ballot. There’s time for the collective voting body to determine if a two-time drug test loser has a place in Cooperstown.

Regarding Sheffield, it’s a close call; he had a much, much longer career (which is relevant) but also hurt his value by being a poor defender. He also admitted using PEDs and was named in the Mitchell Report.

Sosa is one of the strangest Hall of Fame cases. His defensive metrics put him almost at the same level of the 7-time Gold Glover Walker. Obviously, Sammy has all of those home runs. He has not been definitively linked to PEDs but there’s something profoundly inauthentic about his three seasons with over 60 home runs. Edgar’s slash line was vastly superior; that’s good enough for me.

McGriff, like Martinez, was on the ballot for the 10th time. The Crime Dog never caught on with the voters. He also had a nice final-year bump but still finished justshy of 40% of the vote.

Edgar’s slash line was significantly better; he was the better hitter. I think McGriff belongs in the Hall and I have a high level of confidence that the “Today’s Game” Committee (the modern Veterans Committee) will smile on his candidacy the first time he’s eligible for that process in 2022.

Helton spent an entire career in Coors Field, boosting his numbers, while Berkman’s career ended somewhat prematurely, depressing his numbers. The Big Puma will not appear on future ballots since he received just 1.2% of the vote.

Then there’s Walker, one of the most polarizing candidates on the current ballot. I’ve always held the years Walker spent at Coors against him, perhaps unfairly. Martinez also benefited from his home ballpark (the Kingdome) early in his career but spent the last 5 1/2 years of his career calling pitcher-friendly Safeco Field his home.

I’ve done a lot of research on Walker and the Coors Field conundrum. Suffice it to say that Walker did receive a huge boost from Coors but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t a terrific player. He had a big spike in voting support this year and has an outside chance to zoom past 75% in his final year of BBWAA eligibility in 2020.

Reasons for Edgar’s Four-Year Hall of Fame Vote Surge

After debuting on the BBWAA ballot with 36% of all ballots cast in 2010, Edgar Martinez’ voting level of support didn’t grow for years, dipping to as low as 25% in 2014.

However, in the last couple of years, the tide shifted. His vote percentage went from 27% in 2015 to 43% in 2016 to 59% in 2017 to 70% in 2018 and, finally, 85.4% in 2019.

Why the big shift among the voters in the last four years? For me, there are a few reasons. First of all, he was endorsed by some of the greatest pitchers of his generation (see the final section below).

Second, he’s a favorite in the sabermetric community, which has proven effective in creating a cause around a player (as happened recently with Tim Raines and previously with Bert Blyleven).

Third, the fantastic final season of David Ortiz in 2016 seemed to soften the anti-designated-hitter position of many voters. In Big Papi’s swan song, Edgar’s name came up constantly as the gold standard among DH’s.

“I love David. His career was amazing and Hall of Fame-worthy. (Laughing) In the end, it probably helps me that he will definitely get in.”

— Edgar Martinez (in The Sporting News, Dec. 7, 2017)

There’s also, of course, the fact that Harold Baines was elected in December by the “Today’s Game” committee. Regardless of how you (or any BBWAA voter) feels about that selection, it would be a bit sanctimonious of a writer to dismiss Edgar’s candidacy simply because he was a designated hitter when a panel containing many Hall of Fame players, managers and executives voted in a full-time DH of much lesser distinction.

With the election of Edgar, the BBWAA now has a streak of 14 consecutive players (dating back to 1990) who received at least 70% of the vote and were subsequently elected to Cooperstown on the next year’s ballot.

Don’t Take My Word For It

It is a fair point that perhaps Edgar’s career was just a bit too short to merit a spot in Cooperstown. Ultimately, though, his dominant peak and status as one of the hitting savants in baseball was good enough. I’ve laid out my opinion. Here are the opinions of some people who know a little bit more about Edgar Martinez than I do. Look at what two of the recently inducted Hall of Famers (one a foe, one a teammate) plus another member of the Hall’s Class of 2019 had to say about Mr. Martinez.

“The toughest guy I faced I think — with all due respect to all the players in the league — was Edgar Martinez. He had to make me throw at least 13 fastballs above 95 (each time we faced). I was hard-breathing after that. Edgar was a guy that had the ability to foul off pitches, and it pissed me off because I couldn’t get the guy out.”

Pedro Martinez (on MLB Network Jan 6, 2015)

“Edgar Martinez is, hands down, the best hitter that I’ve ever seen. I’m glad I didn’t have to face him too much. Having seen him play from ’89 to all the way when I left, I got to see him a lot against great pitchers. Like I said, hands down, he is the best pure hitter that I got to see on a nightly basis. And I hope that his time comes soon, that he gets a phone call stating that he’s a Hall of Fame player, because he is.”

Randy Johnson (on MLB Network Jan 6, 2015)

“In the first few years, I didn’t want to see Edgar in tough situations. As a matter of fact, I used to tell (Yankees manager) Joe (Torre), if you bring (right fielder) Paul O’Neill right behind second base, we might get him out. Because he made a living hitting in there. It was amazing.. When you face a hitter the type Edgar was, you have to really, really bring your game. If not, he would have you for breakfast, lunch and dinner, like he did me…” 

Mariano Rivera (Hall of Fame Press Conference, January 23, 2019)

Regarding the Great Mariano, Martinez faced him 23 times in the regular season. He went 11 for 19 (.579 average) with 3 walks and one HBP. Included in those 11 hits were 2 home runs and 3 doubles. Edgar’s OPS against Rivera was 1.705, nearly 400 points higher than the next best hitter (with a minimum of 10 plate appearances). Rivera, of course, was also on this year’s Hall of Fame ballot and was the first player to be unanimously voted into the Hall of Fame.

I’ll go with Rivera’s, Pedro’s and the Big Unit’s endorsements here. Edgar Martinez richly deserves the plaque that will bear his likeness. I am looking forward to his speech this summer in Cooperstown.

Thanks for reading.

Please follow me on Twitter @cooperstowncred.

Chris Bodig