Guardians fans are loving dream comp for Angel Martínez amid breakout season

While Angel Martínez has run into some serious struggles during his time with the Guardians, he always had a huge fan in José Ramírez. As Martínez struggled at the plate and in the field last year, Ramírez was effusive in his praise of the young infielder. 

But Ramírez has looked like a nostradamus this season thanks to a strong season from Martínez, who enters play today with a team-leading nine home runs to go along with 27 RBI. 

That breakout performance earned an eye-popping comparison on Monday when Cleveland.com’s Terry Pluto had a question in his mailbag asking if Martínez’s big season is similar to the breakout season that Ramírez authored for Cleveland ten years ago. 

And while Pluto said he “hesitates” to compare anyone to Ramírez, he acknowledged that Martinez is putting together a solid season that could turn his career around. 

Angel Martínez is putting together a José Ramírez-esque breakout season 

Perhaps the biggest similarity between the two is that Martinez is around the same point in his career where Ramírez became an everyday player. As Pluto pointed out, Ramírez had 523 plate appearances before the 2016 season, while Martínez entered this year with 635 plate appearances under his belt. 

Martínez has also followed the utility player path that Ramírez paved early in his career, as he started his career as an infielder before the Guardians asked him to become a full-time outfielder. 

He was one of the worst center fielders in baseball last year but has been serviceable on the grass this season while working primarily as a corner outfielder. 

At face value, Martínez is the antithesis of the kind of player the Guardians tend to go after. He’s an average defender who is a free-swinging slugger with a chase rate of 41%. 

But he’s been using that skillset to provide Cleveland with some much-needed power in the middle of the lineup. That was evident last week when he slugged four homers across nine games to take home American League Player of the Week honors. 

He got the ultimate display of respect twice during that span when Angels hurlers Walbert Ureña and Reid Detmers both said they didn’t regret throwing pitches that Martínez tagged for home runs. 

Martínez is also a bit like Ramírez in that his success hasn’t been built on the back of incredible advanced statistics. He’s in the 36th percentile in xwOBA (which measures quality of contract) while also being in the 27th percentile in hard-hit rate. 

Those stats don’t jump off the page, but his production has. The Guardians’ offense is showing a bit more pop this year compared to last season, and Martínez’s strong showing is a big reason for that. If he’s able to keep it up, he could end up becoming a mainstay next to Ramírez in Cleveland’s lineup.

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