Seattle Mariners Set to Honor Edgar Martinez by Retiring His Number
Seattle Mariners legend Edgar Martinez may have to wait a bit longer to join baseball’s Hall of Fame, but the team with which he spent his whole career plans to honor him in 2017.
Edgar Martinez played his entire 18-year career with the Seattle Mariners.
Later this summer, that relationship will be celebrated as the club will retire Martinez’s number 11 in August.
The honor is well-deserved. In addition to playing his entire career with the Mariners – a feat in and of itself – Martinez racked up seven All-Star appearances alongside five Silver Slugger awards.
A Legendary Season
Identifying Martinez’s best all-around season is difficult, but his 1995 season stands out.
In that year, Martinez led the American League in runs (121), doubles (52), batting average (.356), on-base percentage (.479) and on-base plus slugging (1.107). Those doubles and OPS marks also led Major League Baseball as a whole.
By the time the Seattle Mariners embarked on their legendary 116-win 2001 season, Martinez no longer had to do the heavy-lifting. However, at 38 years old he did his fair share, slashing .306/.423/.543 to go along with 23 home runs and 116 RBI.
All told, he posted a 65.5 fWAR for his career.
Patience for Days
The Seattle Mariners used Martinez as a designated hitter exclusively – save for some spot starts at third or first here and there – but he was not someone who would go up to the plate and hack away.
Martinez’s patience as a hitter is borne out by his career walk rate (14.8 percent) and strikeout rate (13.9 percent). He never had a season where he struck out more than 19.5 percent of the time, and that figure came in his final season.
He stands alongside David Ortiz as the premier designated hitters in baseball’s history since the position was adopted in 1973. While Ortiz’s eventual Hall of Fame induction is all but a lock, Martinez has some work to do.
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Despite gaining 15.2 percent in voting year-over-year, Martinez tallied just 58.2 percent of votes in 2017 – his eighth year on the ballot. He is certainly a worthy candidate, but with just two years of eligibility left, his induction is not a certainty by any means.
Perhaps with the Seattle Mariners honoring him in this way, the voters will take another look at Martinez’s impressive resume.