J.D. Martinez: Now the Best Hitter on the Detroit Tigers?

Miguel Cabrera is one of the greatest hitters of this generation. As a two-time MVP and the permanent third place hitter on the playoff contending Detroit Tigers, he is a force to be reckoned with. But is he still the best hitter on his team?

.330/.393/.606 and .325/.391/.570. Pretty similar slash lines right? The first belongs to Miguel Cabrera in his MVP season in 2012, the same year he became the first triple crown winner since Carl Yastrzemski in 1967.

The second slash line? A mere five points below in AVG, two points below in OBP and a barely substantial 36 points in SLG. That’s J.D. Martinez thus far in 2016.

While Martinez does not have the gaudy home run and RBI totals Cabrera had in 2012, the peripherals are all there.

Cabrera is still an absolutely terrific hitter, slashing .310/.385/.543 in the current season. With 31 home runs and 139 games played, he is still a hitter every team would dream of having in their lineup.

But what about Martinez? Why doesn’t he get any credit? An All-Star last year, he put up 38 home runs and 102 RBI. This all coming from a player who slashed .251/.300/.387 with a mere 24 home runs in his first 252 career games.

Since coming to the Detroit Tigers, he has slashed .304/.361/.550 with 82 home runs even after missing significant time to injury this year. He is the ONLY player since 2014 to be in the top ten in batting average while eclipsing 80 dingers.

More from Detroit Tigers

Martinez is third in MLB in hard hit percentage in the past three years, behind only Giancarlo Stanton and David Ortiz, and one spot ahead of Miguel Cabrera.

While certainly not an accomplishment, Martinez is by far the worst player in the top ten of Fangraphs’ wRC+ (weighted runs created plus) in terms of walk percentage (7.9 percent). This begs the question, is he the best pure hitter in baseball? He doesn’t walk like Joey Votto or Bryce Harper, yet his OPS is right in line with those top sluggers (.960 for Martinez this year, .958 for Votto).

Possibly because of Cabrera’s presence on the Tigers, Martinez does not get the credit he deserves for his outstanding hitting. Cabrera is always consistent, same with Ian Kinsler, while Victor Martinez has bounced back from a bad 2015 and Justin Upton is finally getting hot, all the while breakout third basemen Nick Castellanos is on his way back from injury.

Next: Bullpenning: Baseball's Next Big Trend?

But what about the team’s leader in Fangraphs Offense rating? This stat, which is the “number of runs above or below average a player has been worth offensively” does not take into account that Martinez has only played in 101 games. Yet, he still leads Detroit in it, signifying his value to the team’s lineup.

If the Tigers are able to pull ahead of one of the AL East teams to gain Wild Card position, it will be because of J.D. Martinez’s MVP-like hitting. Maybe then he will finally get noticed.

Home/Detroit Tigers