Per Martin, I said way back in the spring that if he bounced back to be a 90 OPS+ player then he was a really fine addition. He's done that. It is just that I'm not sure he's got several seasons running of a 105 OPS....the next level, as it were. But I think he's likely to have one in the 100 range in the next 3. In '13, '14 and '16 he ran .319, .336 and .313 BABIP's. Does he have a "lucky" .350 in him one year? Ellsbury, of course, is the guy you hope Martin looks like at some point. He had 83 XB hits in his All-World '11. He was 27 years old. But in his two healthy seasons before that he had 38 and 45 in '08-'09. In '13-14 (following an injury in '12) he had 48 twice. In his healthy seasons, Martin has been at 37-27-35. Martin hit .260 and .274 in his first two fulltime sesons, Ellsbury .280 and .301.
If Martin gets to .270 AND 45 XB's then he is really good. That's Ellsbury in '14. 111 OPS+. We've got Martin relatively cheap for 2 more years. Either one of those would be good time for such a breakout. I would bet he has one year at about 90 OPS+ and another 1/2 level up....close to 100. But I'm not seeing the big plateau leap. Ellsbury K'ed 30 times less a year than Martin. That's a lot more opportunites for XB's when you're running a .320 BABIP.
It seems to me that Martin should hit 15 doubles to LF a year. At least a speedy LH non-power hitting OF ought to. He thinks RF too much.
Pull the inside pitch, Martin....drive the ball away.
All that said (and whined about a bit), he was a fine ballplayer for us this year.
His .260-.340 up through the end of May was nice, but his 9 homers in 145 AB's was completely an outlier thing. He had 6 in 401 after that. About his career rate.