Designated Hitter?
After the 2014 season, the Detroit Tigers resigned Victor Martinez to a four-year, $68 million deal. At the time he was arguably coming off of the best season of his career. He hit .335/.409/.565 (172 OPS+) with 32 home runs and 103 RBI. He finished as the runner-up to Mike Trout in the AL MVP voting that year.
Over the past three seasons, however, Martinez merely has not been the same player. He suffered a knee injury before the beginning of the 2015 season and went on to hit just .245/.301/.366 (84 OPS+) with 11 home runs and 64 RBI through 120 games.
He did bounce back the next year to hit .289/.351/.476 (121 OPS+) with 27 home runs and 86 RBI. However, he had another terrible season in 2017.
Through 107 games last year, Martinez slashed .255/.324/.372 (84 OPS+) with 10 home runs and 47 RBI. He underwent a season-ending heart procedure in early September after previously being diagnosed and hospitalized for an irregular heartbeat in June.
Though there was a certain amount of question as to whether or not he would be able to return, Martinez has now been reinstated from the 60-day DL. According to George Sipple of the Detroit Free Press, comments made by GM Al Avila indicate that Martinez is working hard this offseason and the team is willing to give him an opportunity to show that he can still hit. Still, if it doesn’t work out, it wouldn’t be shocking to see the Tigers release Martinez (despite the fact that he is still owed $18 million) or reduce him to a bench role and give someone else more time at DH.