The Astros have released outfielder J.D. Martinez, MLB.com's Brian McTaggart tweets. Houston had outrighted Martinez in November, but before that, he collected 975 plate appearances with the Astros over three seasons, hitting .251/.300/.387. Martinez is represented by Bob Garber of RMG Baseball.
The 2014 Astros figure to go with an outfield that could include Robbie Grossman, Dexter Fowler, L.J. Hoes and Marc Krauss, with top prospect George Springer eventually a factor. GM Jeff Luhnow tells the Houston Chronicle's Evan Drellich that Martinez would have had a relatively high Triple-A salary, which limited other teams' interest in him.
This guy showed so much promise a couple years ago. At 26, I hope my team picks him up.
I thought he showed some surprise pop in his minor league numbers. Weird they would just totally give up on him like this.
I don’t know if I would say they totally gave up on him. He got almost 1000 plate appearances.
I think Houston just feels better about the other OF they have on the roster because all of those guys have a long minor league track record of well above average plate discipline.
JD has shown virtually no improvement since his first season, when he showed some potential. Federal is right; the current options are all better.
Well, look at the depth of outfielders the Astros have. At the major league level, Robbie Grossman and L.J. Hoes showed promise last season. Adding Dexter Fowler gives a veteran presence. Chris Carter and Marc Krauss are versatile and have the ability to play the outfield. The organization also expects George Springer to play a significant portion of the season in the major leagues.
At the AAA level they have guys like Austin Wates, Ruben Sosa, Ravel Santana, and Andrew Simunic. So JD wasn’t going to get much playing time there. Then in AA the outfield looks great with Delino DeShields, Preston Tucker, and Domingo Santana. Demoting JD all the way down to AA wasn’t going to help him just like sending Brett Wallace down to Corpus wasn’t going to benefit him. It’s not really a matter of the organization giving up on JD, it was more of the fact that he hadn’t earned a role.
Houston will lose over 100 games again. Worst case scenario Martinez is legitimate major league depth.
His stats don’t look that bad…
4th outfielder stuff.
There’s more to a player than just stats.
Detroit needs another OF.
*needs another left-handed hitting OF (preferably LF with power).
Twins could use him
J. D. Martinez would work for a lot of teams as their 4th or 5th outfielder or as a team’s protection against injury by stashing him at AAA. If you have hopes of contending, his higher than normal AAA salary would be worth it. They don’t have to give up anything but his current salary to do it, and if he works out for you, he’s still got a few years of team control left.
In some ways the Astros did him a favor by granting him his release. So many players like him end up being kept by organizations simply because they can keep him. Astros don’t have to pay him and teams don’t have to give up a player. Win-win all around.