Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports
After enjoying the best season of his career in 2014, Victor Martinez returned to the Detroit Tigers on a reported four-year, $68 million deal this past November. Two months later, he tore the medial meniscus in his left knee. Of course, Martinez also suffered a torn ACL in the same knee during the winter of 2012, which ultimately kept him on the sidelines the entire season.
Despite the injury and subsequent surgery, Martinez’s name was still in the Tigers’ lineup as the designated hitter on Opening Day of this year. Unfortunately, however, he got off to an incredibly slow start and never appeared to be fully healthy.
On May 19, Martinez was placed on the 15-day DL with inflammation in his knee. At the time, the switch-hitter was still getting it done from the right-side of the dish, but he was struggling quite mightily while batting left-handed, hitting only .141/.242/.153 with zero home runs and seven RBIs across 99 plate appearances. Last year, when Martinez finished as the runner up to Mike Trout in the 2014 AL MVP voting, he hit .323/.402/.522 with 20 homers and 74 RBIs from the left side, easily making him the Tigers’ best left-handed hitter.
Although the Tigers still have superstar Miguel Cabrera, J.D. Martinez and Yoenis Cespedes in the heart of the order, each of them are right-handed hitters. In recent years, the Tigers have been light on left-handed hitting, and V-Mart has helped fill that void quite nicely, which is part of what makes his absence so devastating.
Furthermore, Alex Avila, the Tigers’ left-handed hitting catcher, is currently on the DL as well. Although the left-handed Anthony Gose is certainly having a nice year and Tyler Collins can deliver some punch from that side, there is simply no replacing the production that Martinez gave the Tigers a season ago.
The lineup clearly isn’t at full strength without Martinez presenting a major threat from the left-side, which was obviously the case even before he went on the DL. Considering the fact that Martinez is already 36 years old and under contract through 2018, the most important thing right now is for the Tigers to remain patient and wait until is he fully healthy and ready to return.
Before the summer is over, though, Detroit will need Martinez to come back and start swinging the bat the way that he is capable of — from both sides of the plate.
Brad Faber is a Senior Writer and Sabermetrics Columnist for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @Brad_Faber, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on LinkedIn or Google.
