J.D. Martinez

37-Year-Old DHDH

Free Agent

2024 Stats

AVG

.235

RBI

2025 Projections

AVG

RBI

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2025 Fantasy Outlook

Martinez remained unsigned for most of last winter before latching on with the Mets in March, and the hesitancy from teams to sign him appears to have been well placed since his .726 OPS in 2024 was his lowest mark in a full-length season since 2013. He still provided an above-average bat in his age-36 campaign with 16 homers and a 108 wRC+, but that's not a figure that jumps off the page for a designated hitter. A 45.5 percent hard-hit rate was a drop of nearly 10 points from 2023, though it was still just slightly below Martinez's career average of 47.7 percent. He also may have gotten some unfortunate results, with a .261 xBA and .484 xSLG being significantly better than his actual .235 average and .406 SLG. He also saw most of his success in 2024 against left-handed pitching, as he had a .683 OPS against righties and an .836 OPS versus southpaws. Teams may view him as more of a platoon option at designated hitter at this point, which limits his prospects in both free agency and as a fantasy asset. Read Past Outlooks

RANKS

From Preseason

Bats R

Throws R

40 Man No

Height 6'3"

Weight 200

DOB 8/21/1987

Drafted 20th Rd 2009

Getting start at DH

DHNew York Mets

October 16, 2024

Martinez will start at designated hitter and bat sixth Wednesday in Game 3 of the NLCS versus the Dodgers.

ANALYSIS
Jesse Winker was in the DH slot in each of the first two games of the series, but Martinez will get a shot Wednesday against right-hander Walker Buehler. It's Martinez's first start since Game 4 of the NLDS and his fourth start in 10 games this postseason for the Mets.

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Batting Stats

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2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2024 MLB Game Log

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2023 MLB Game Log

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2022 MLB Game Log

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2021 MLB Game Log

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2020 MLB Game Log

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2019 MLB Game Log

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2018 MLB Game Log

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2017 MLB Game Log

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Minor League Game Log

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Batting Order Slot Breakdown

vs Right-Handed Pitchers

vs RHP

vs Left-Handed Pitchers

vs LHP

Left/Right Batting Splits

Since 2022

+21%

OPS vs LHP

2024

+22%

OPS vs LHP

2023

+5%

OPS vs LHP

2022

+37%

OPS vs LHP

	OPS	PA	R	HR	RBI	SB	AVG	OBP	SLG
Since 2022vs Left	.920	409	56	20	70	1	.285	.372	.548
Since 2022vs Right	.761	1154	127	45	164	0	.253	.313	.448
2024vs Left	.836	138	18	6	24	0	.263	.370	.466
2024vs Right	.683	353	28	10	45	0	.225	.300	.383
2023vs Left	.924	134	13	9	27	1	.274	.343	.581
2023vs Right	.880	343	48	24	76	0	.270	.312	.568
2022vs Left	.998	137	25	5	19	0	.319	.401	.597
2022vs Right	.729	458	51	11	43	0	.261	.323	.406
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Home/Away Batting Splits

Since 2022

+3%

OPS at Home

2024

+25%

OPS at Home

2023

+6%

OPS on Road

2022

+3%

OPS on Road

	OPS	PA	R	HR	RBI	SB	AVG	OBP	SLG
Since 2022Home	.812	783	92	36	124	0	.259	.328	.484
Since 2022Away	.791	780	91	29	110	1	.263	.328	.463
2024Home	.806	245	24	10	41	0	.248	.339	.467
2024Away	.646	246	22	6	28	0	.223	.301	.345
2023Home	.864	230	28	17	47	0	.244	.317	.546
2023Away	.919	247	33	16	56	1	.295	.324	.595
2022Home	.778	308	40	9	36	0	.279	.328	.450
2022Away	.802	287	36	7	26	0	.269	.355	.447
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Stat Review

How does J.D. Martinez compare to other hitters?

This section compares his stats with all batting seasons from the previous three seasons (minimum 400 plate appearances)*. The bar represents the player's percentile rank. For example, if the bar is halfway across, then the player falls into the 50th percentile for that stat and it would be considered average.

* Exit Velocity and Barrels/PA % are benchmarked against 2019 data (min 400 PA) and Hard Hit Rate is benchmarked against last season's data (min 400 PA). See here for more exit velocity/barrels stats plus an explanation of current limitations with that data set.

BB/K
Walk to strikeout ratio
BB Rate
The percentage of plate appearances resulting in a walk.
K Rate
The percentage of plate appearances resulting in a strikeout.
BABIP
Batting average on balls in play. Measures how many of a batter’s balls in play go for hits.
ISO
Isolated Power. Slugging percentage minus batting average. A computation used to measure a batter's raw power.
AVG
Batting average. Hits divided by at bats.
OBP
On Base Percentage. A measure of how often a batters reaches base. Roughly equal to number of times on base divided by plate appearances.
SLG
Slugging Percentage. A measure of the batting productivity of a hitter. It is calculated as total bases divided by at bats.
OPS
On base plus slugging. THe sum of a batter's on-base percentage and slugging percentage.
wOBA
Weighted on-base average. Measures a player's overall offensive contributions per plate appearance. wOBA combines all the different aspects of hitting into one metric, weighting each of them in proportion to their actual run value.
Exit Velocity
The speed of the baseball as it comes off the bat, immediately after a batter makes contact.
Hard Hit Rate
A measure of contact quality from Sports Info Solutions. This stat explains what percentage of batted balls were hit hard vs. medium or soft.
Barrels/PA
The percentage of plate appearances where a batter had a batted ball classified as a Barrel. A Barrel is a batted ball with similar exit velocity and launch angle to past ones that led to a minimum .500 batting average and 1.500 slugging percentage.
Expected BA
Expected Batting Average.
Expected SLG
Expected Slugging Percentage.
Sprint Speed
The speed of a runner from home to first, in feet per second.
Ground Ball %
The percentage of balls put in play that are on the ground.
Line Drive %
The percentage of balls put in play that are line drives.
Fly Ball %
The percentage of balls put in play that are fly balls.

BB/K

0.35

BB Rate

10.0%

K Rate

28.7%

BABIP

.308

ISO

.171

AVG

.235

OBP

.320

SLG

.406

OPS

.725

wOBA

.322

Exit Velocity

91.0 mph

Hard Hit Rate

37.7%

Barrels/PA

9.0%

Expected BA

.256

Expected SLG

.472

Sprint Speed

22.0 ft/sec

Ground Ball %

38.3%

Line Drive %

19.7%

Fly Ball %

42.0%

Advanced Batting Stats

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Additional Stats

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Defensive Stats

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Batted Ball Stats

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Stats Vs Upcoming Pitchers

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Recent RotoWire Articles Featuring J.D. Martinez See More

RotoWire Roundtable: 2025 Fantasy Baseball Top-300 Rankings

22 days ago

Shohei Ohtani takes the top spot in the first edition of the 2025 RotoWire roundtable rankings, but his lead is a very slim one.

The Z Files: NFBC Postseason Hold'em Contest

72 days ago

The NFBC's Postseason Hold'em contest kicks off at the start of the Division Series, and its scoring system leads to some unusual rankings.

The Z Files: Generic MLB Playoff Ranks by Position

76 days ago

Todd Zola provides some player rankings ahead of the playoffs, as Mookie Betts and the Dodgers take MLB's best record into the postseason.

The Z Files: Strategy and Rankings for the Underdog Fantasy Playoff Contest

80 days ago

Todd Zola examines strategies for the Underdog postseason contest, and notes that while Shoehi Ohtani may be the best player, you may not want to take him first overall.

Weekly Hitter Rankings: Last Ups

85 days ago

Ryan McMahon and the Rockies finish the season with six straight home games.

Past Fantasy Outlooks

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2013

2012

Coming off an uncharacteristic 16-homer, 62-RBI campaign in 2022, Martinez inked a one-year, $10 million pact with the Dodgers last season and clubbed 33 home runs and tallied 103 RBI despite playing in 26 fewer games. A .301 ISO was his best since 2017 and a 54.8 percent hard-hit rate was the highest of his career, though he also had a career-worst 31.4 percent strikeout rate. It's the first time his strikeout rate has even come close to 30 percent, so it may be nothing to worry about since he also made consistent hard contact. A reproduction of the elite counting stats in 2024 would be optimistic in Martinez's age-36 season, but he should again be a heavily productive bat that's only really limited by his DH-only status.

Reports of Martinez's demise may have been exaggerated. His 2022 season was a bit of a disappointment, though he was an American League All-Star for the fifth time in his career. Martinez managed only 16 homers across 596 plate appearances for the season, including only one in a 38-game span from July 11 to Aug. 30. Once one of the game's most feared sluggers after some well-documented swing and approach changes, Martinez is no longer that, but the power is not completely gone as evidenced by his career-high 43 doubles in 2022. He endured some tough HR/FB luck in the middle of the season and should be expected to rebound in 2023 -- just not to 2017-19 levels. The Red Sox declined to extend Martinez the qualifying offer, but he was scooped up by the Dodgers, and the better surrounding lineup could help his counting stats.

Martinez struggled in 2020 with a .213 average, torpedoed by a near 100-point drop in his BABIP to .259. There was a lot of trepidation toward drafting him as a result. He answered all doubters with a 1.169 OPS in April, and hit for a .805 OPS over the rest of the season. While a near-.800 OPS is not ideal, it is similar to the rates of Nolan Arenado (.807 OPS) and Mitch Haniger (.804 OPS). He's a rosterable player, but not the same player who was consistently hitting 40-plus homers with a .300 average. His maxEV used to be around 115 mph, but it's closer to 113 mph the last three seasons. With less power, he's compensated by raising his launch angle each season since 2018 (from 10.8 degrees in 2018 to 16.9 degrees last season, while his GB% was near a career low). His HR/FB has been cut in half since 2017, going from 33.8% to 15.7% last year. Right now, his profile screams good, not elite. Pay for the good, and hope he has the ability to bring back his old self one more time.

Major League Baseball implemented a policy against in-tunnel video in 2020 and Martinez hated the policy, blaming it in large part for his struggles. He complained about it early and often, and never really seemed to get over it. He looked surprisingly awful at the plate for most of the season, particularly against fastballs. Martinez hit .318 and slugged .574 off fastballs in 2019, but those numbers fell to .186 and .372 last season. He put up the 2019 numbers even while dealing with a balky back, but he just looked completely overmatched at the plate more often than not in 2020. Even his well-documented domination of lefties suffered as the career .310/.382/.568 hitter against southpaws had a 2020 finish of .214/.286/.393. Expect a rebound in 2021 because he has had an offseason to adjust his preparation, but a full recovery to 2015-2019 is unlikely.

For a player with this kind of power -- among the most prolific in the game -- 36 home runs in a record-setting HR season qualify as a slight disappointment. While Martinez didn't finish north of 40 as he did in 2017 and 2018, he did clear the .300 BA threshold. He also cleared triple digits in RBI for the fourth time in five seasons and surpassed 200 runs-plus-RBI for the second consecutive year. The fact is, he's so much more than "Just Dingers." Martinez has chipped away at his K%, lowering it to 21%, and he walks more than 10% of the time. While certainly not a good defender, Martinez still qualifies as an OF-eligible player, one who has the luxury of playing most of his games at DH. If a 21st ranked finish among hitters is what we can expect in a "down" year from Martinez, then consider us very much in at a second-round cost. He's still going to be only 32 years old for most of the 2020 season.

Martinez was unsigned deep into last winter, but the wait was worth it after he found the perfect landing spot in Boston. While mainly serving as the club's DH, Martinez avoided the health issues that plagued him as an everyday outfielder the prior two seasons, playing in 150 games and setting career highs in AVG (.330), OBP (.402), RBI (130), runs (111) and extra-base hits (82). As has held true since his 2014 breakout, Martinez remains a Statcast darling, with his elite hard-hit and barrel rates yielding elevated BABIPs for a player with limited speed. The stellar batted-ball metrics bolster Martinez's odds of finishing near the top of the home-run and average leaderboards again in 2019, while his spot in a lineup that includes a bevy of young stars sets him up for ample run-producing and run-scoring chances. Martinez retains outfield eligibility after logging 57 starts in 2018, mitigating any concern about his worthiness of a first-round selection.

Despite missing six weeks at the start of the season due to a foot injury, Martinez finished third in the majors with 45 home runs. He produced at an otherworldly rate after being traded from Detroit to Arizona, hitting 29 homers and driving in 65 runs in just 62 games with the Diamondbacks. He was great against both handedness of pitcher, but Martinez absolutely destroyed lefties to the tune of a .376/.464/.892 batting line. Overall, Martinez's barrel rate of 12.3 Brls/PA trailed only Aaron Judge's mark, according to Statcast. He's now hit over .300 in three of the last four seasons, and Martinez is still just 30, so it should be a while before any significant age-related skills regression sets in. He landed with the Red Sox in free agency, giving him added appeal as a late-first/early-second rounder with a combination of elite power and batting average.

It would be wrong to say Martinez struggled through the first two months of 2016, but his .820 OPS was a level below the upper-.800 range he had shown over the previous the two seasons. When he hit at a 1.076 OPS clip for the first two weeks in June, it looked like everything was back on track until he ran into a wall in foul territory during a game in Kansas City and fractured his left elbow, forcing him to miss nearly two months. There were some concerns about his power upon return, but a dramatic eighth-inning home run against Chris Sale in his first at-bat back stomped that fear down. He got hits in each of his first five games back and 19 of 20 afterward. The bottom line was another 517 plate appearances that further solidify him as one of the game's premier power bats. He flirted with 40 homers back in 2015 before the power surge swept the league, and he remains a candidate to eclipse that mark in a full season.

Martinez proved his breakout of 2014 was real with elite production in 2015. He delivered 38 home runs and 102 RBI, with an .879 OPS; all three of those stats were top-10 in the American League. His OBP (.344) was still solid despite whiffing 178 times. The Tigers and his fantasy owners can live with those strikeouts if Martinez can continue to deliver as one of MLB's best power hitters. Draft him as a top-10 outfielder, but watch for a drop-off in performance after the All-Star break. Martinez has been a better first-half performer the last two seasons and seems to tire a bit in the second half.

Martinez was easily one of the biggest fantasy surprises of 2014. After being released by the Astros during spring training, Martinez was quickly signed to a minor league contract by the Tigers, who assigned him to Triple-A Toledo to begin the season. He was able to force the Tigers’ hand after just 17 games with the Mud Hens and his success carried over to the majors, as Martinez quickly took over as Detroit’s everyday left fielder. While it’s hard to argue with the strong numbers he posted, Martinez’s production was buoyed by an unsustainable .397 BABIP. He also struggled with his plate discipline, posting a 71 percent contact rate and 0.24 BB/K ratio. The odds are stacked against Martinez repeating his magical 2014 campaign, but he is a former top prospect with solid power, and it certainly won’t hurt his cause hitting behind superstars Miguel Cabrera and Victor Martinez. Owners will want to make sure they don’t pay for his 2014 production, but there’s still plenty of value to be had here if the price tag is right.

Martinez began the season hitting third for the Astros, but imploded the second time through the division, earning himself a demotion in early August. Still, we can not call 2012 a total failure. Martinez proved that he can hit well in the clutch (as evidenced in part by his team-leading RBI total), though few would argue that he has below-average speed and is stiff on the basepaths. The Astros' move to the American League will afford Martinez some added opportunities in the DH spot, but that role may be shared with Brett Wallace thanks to the addition of Carlos Pena at first base.

The Hunter Pence trade coupled with a hot start at the plate allowed Martinez to parlay a late July callup into an opportunity to remain a regular in the Astros lineup for most of the remainder of the season. He can hit for a decent average and has developing power, though the questions persist about his ultimate upside. The Astros have a lot of outfield options, so there's a chance Martinez could be moved to right from left. He figures to get regular at-bats, wherever he winds up playing.

More Fantasy News

Expected to be in Game 3 lineup

DHNew York Mets

October 15, 2024

Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said Tuesday that Martinez will likely be in the lineup Wednesday in Game 3 of the NLCS, Bob Nightengale of USA Today reports.