Seattle Mariners: Edgar Martinez Finally Elected to the Hall of Fame

On his 10th year of eligibility, Seattle Mariners slugger Edgar Martinez (aka “Papi”) has finally been elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

After 10-years of waiting, Edgar Martinez has finally been elected into Baseball’s Hall of Fame (HOF) by the BBWAA. He becomes just the fourth player to have played at least 25% of their games as a DH to be elected to Cooperstown.

Despite not having the flashy power numbers, Edgar Martinez was arguably the best hitter of the deadly Seattle Mariners lineup of the 1990’s, which included the likes of Ken Griffey Jr. (HOF), Alex Rodriguez, and Jay Buhner.

More from Call to the Pen

• Philadelphia Phillies, ready for a stretch run, bomb St. Louis Cardinals
• Philadelphia Phillies: The 4 players on the franchise’s Mount Rushmore
• Boston Red Sox fans should be upset over Mookie Betts’ comment
• Analyzing the Boston Red Sox trade for Dave Henderson and Spike Owen
• 2023 MLB postseason likely to have a strange look without Yankees, Red Sox, Cardinals

Martinez has long been recognized as the greatest DH of all time. So much so that in 2004, the Outstanding Designated Hitter Award was renamed the Edgar Martinez Award.

It’s surprising that it took this long for Martinez to be elected to the HOF, especially considering that Papi is arguably better statistically than two of three HOF DH’s, Paul Molitor and Jim Rice

Here’s how Papi compares to Molitor and Rice offensively:

• AVG: Papi (.312) | Molitor (.306) | Rice (.298)
• OBP: Papi (.418) | Molitor (.369) | Rice (.352)
• SLG: Papi (.515) | Rice (.502) | Molitor (.448)
• wRC+: Papi (147) | Rice (128) | Molitor (122)

Edgar Martinez will be remembered for having the greatest single season for a DH of all time in 1995. A season in which he cemented himself as a premier hitter in baseball by almost single-handedly cutting a magical 1995 season short for the New York Yankees.

That same season, Papi led all of MLB in R (121), 2B (52), BA (.356), OBP (.479) and OPS (1.107). Still then, despite being the best offensive player, Martinez placed 3rd in the MVP voting. Even though, statistically, he was better than the MVP, Mo Vaughn (.963 OPS), and the 2nd place finisher Albert Belle (1.091 OPS).

Since retiring from baseball after the 2004 season, Papi took a 10-year hiatus from MLB.

In 2015, the Seattle Mariners hired Edgar Martinez as their hitting coach. He served in this role through the end of the 2018 season.

In 2019, Martinez will move from hitting coach to hitting advisor, per USA Today.