J.D. proving he’s far from done in resurgent 1st season with Dodgers
On Dec. 29, 2022, the Dodgers signed J.D. Martinez to a one-year, $10 million deal. The transfer got here and went with out a lot fanfare, paling compared to a number of the astronomical contracts that had been signed earlier within the month.
Martinez, a 35-year-old designated hitter coming off a season wherein he hit .274 with 16 homers and a .790 OPS for the Red Sox, ended up being the largest addition the Dodgers made final offseason. Meanwhile, they’d a number of notable departures, together with Trea Turner, Cody Bellinger, Justin Turner, Tyler Anderson and Andrew Heaney.
As a end result, it was straightforward to foretell that this is able to be the yr the Padres overtook the Dodgers within the NL West. After all, San Diego knocked off Los Angeles within the NLDS final yr and signed Xander Bogaerts to an 11-year, $280 million contract in December, including one other All-Star to a proficient roster that was solely going to get stronger as soon as Fernando Tatis Jr. returned from suspension in April.
However, greater than two months since Opening Day, L.A. is correct the place it at all times is, among the many greatest groups in baseball. The Dodgers have a 35-26 file, one sport behind the stunning D-backs for first place within the NL West. They’ve executed that with out their common pitching mastery, posting the fourth-highest ERA (4.52) within the NL.
While its pitching has been lackluster, Los Angeles’ offense has flat-out bludgeoned opponents, rating third in MLB in runs per sport (5.56) whereas averaging a half-run greater than every other NL group.
Of course, the quartet of Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts, Will Smith and Max Muncy is owed a great deal of credit score for the Dodgers’ offensive success this season, however we additionally have to highlight Martinez, who has turned again the clock and rediscovered the pop that after made him considered one of baseball’s most feared sluggers.
Martinez already has 15 homers — one fewer than he hit all of final season — and is main the NL with a .633 slugging share via 45 video games with the Dodgers. Given on a regular basis Bryce Harper missed whereas recovering from Tommy John surgical procedure, Martinez has a robust case to be the NL’s beginning DH on the 2023 All-Star Game in Seattle.
It’s a far cry from 2022, when Martinez’s energy disappeared for lengthy stretches. The veteran hit one homer over 15 video games in April 2022 and went deep simply six occasions in 96 video games from May 18-Sept. 18, with homerless droughts of 34 video games, 22 video games and 19 video games — his three longest house run droughts for the reason that begin of 2014 — throughout that time-frame.
Martinez’s xSLG is up 172 factors from 2022, marking MLB’s largest year-over-year enhance.
We can pinpoint two main the reason why his energy has returned in 2023. (All stats under are via Monday.)
1) He’s producing extra hard-hit fly balls
As common, Martinez was one of many leaders in producing sweet-spot contact (batted balls with a launch angle starting from 8-32 levels) final season, so he was nonetheless hitting the ball within the air regularly.
What he did not do as a lot, nevertheless, was hit the ball arduous (95+ mph exit velocity), particularly on fly balls.
That’s modified in 2023, along with his hard-hit fee rising a whopping 13.1 factors — the largest spike in MLB. This features a 16.5-point enhance (47.9% to 64.4%) in his hard-hit fee on fly balls.
With a 54.8% hard-hit fee total, Martinez is again among the many elite in that division (96th percentile) after falling to the sixtieth percentile in 2022.
Hard-hit fly balls comprise greater than 23% of his batted balls in 2023, up from 14.8% a yr in the past.
Relatedly, Martinez has recorded 23 batted balls that had been categorised as barrels, balls with the optimum mixture of exit velocity and launch angle, usually leading to extra-base hits. His 18.5% barrel fee (up 6.0 factors from 2022) ranks within the 97th percentile.
2) He’s pulling the ball extra
Arguably no hitter within the Statcast period (since 2015) has been as efficient as Martinez at hitting for energy to the alternative subject.
But in 2022, Martinez’s slugging share on opposite-field batted balls plummeted to .509, down from .825 (fourth highest in MLB) throughout 2015-21. It’s within the .500 vary once more in 2023, however he has counteracted the decline by producing extra pull-side contact, to nice impact.
Martinez’s pull fee is up 6.3 factors from 2022, and solely a choose few gamers have the next slugging share once they pull the ball than Martinez’s 1.106 mark.
Just seven of his 48 hits and 4 of his 30 extra-base hits have gone to the alternative subject in 2023.
It must be famous that Martinez additionally began off robust in 2021 and 2022, solely to peter out because the yr progressed. At 35 years outdated, it is actually potential that may occur once more this season. But proper now, he is on monitor to go down as one other large win for the Dodgers’ entrance workplace.
