Angel Martínez has been making a statement for the Guardians this spring

Last season, Angel Martínez struggled in pretty much every capacity. While he played in a career-high 139 games, the 24-year-old hit just .224 while posting some of the worst metrics in the league in center field. 

And while his roster spot was never really in any danger in the offseason, he became kind of the forgotten man in the Guardians’ position player picture thanks to the number of young prospects the team is clearing the way for. 

But that’s changed this spring thanks to a strong performance that’s all but secured a spot for him on the Guardians’ Opening Day roster. 

Angel Martínez is finally showing how good he can be for the Guardians 

Martínez entered play on Wednesday 9-for-21 (429) with two home runs, two RBI, two walks and a steal this spring.  Although every spring training stat should be taken with a grain of salt, it’s clear that Martínez is locked in. 

He also could be in line for a bit of a position change, which would be a welcome change from how things went last season. 

Last year Martínez recorded a team-high 114 appearances in center field despite the fact he started learning the outfield during the 2024 season. And that inexperience reared its head throughout the season in the form of misplayed balls and bad routes. 

But that could all be a thing of the past thanks to Steven Kwan moving to center field. While it seems like the Guardians still think of Martínez as a full-time outfielder, moving him to a corner would limit the amount of running he’d need to do while also allowing the Guardians to take advantage of his strong throwing arm (96th percentile). 

“I can’t wait,” Martinez said about moving to the outfield, per Cleveland.com’s Paul Hoynes. “I can’t wait to be better and to understand the position and all the situations better. I feel way better than last year.”

And having Martínez be a plus-player for the Guardians would be a huge benefit given how his profile could help the Guardians’ lineup. The switch-hitter is hitting .400 against left-handed pitchers this year after hitting .279 against southpaws last season. 

The Guardians have as lefty-heavy of a lineup as you can have, so a productive Martínez would provide Cleveland some much-needed balance. 

Martínez told Hoynes and other members of the Guardians beat that he spent most of the winter at the Guardians’ Dominican baseball academy where they worked on his defense and ability to hit left-handers. 

We saw some of that pop against lefties last season when Martínez slugged a go-ahead grand slam against Josh Hader, and seeing more of that kind of power from him would go a long way toward turning him into an everyday player.

But regardless of whether or not he opens the season as an everyday player, Martínez has clearly done enough to open the season on Cleveland’s roster.