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Edgar Martinez Faces Uphill Battle As Seattle Mariners’ Hitting Coach

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Edgar Martinez Mariners

Jennifer Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports

You see it all the time throughout baseball: great players tend to make awful coaches or managers after their time on the field, and great coaches or managers usually have mediocre playing careers prior to being hired in that capacity. If you’re good on one side of the foul lines, you’re probably not going to find much success on the other side. Still, there’s no denying that guys with long, laudable careers gain a wealth of experience that could become valuable to the next generation of players.

In that vein, the Seattle Mariners have made a quite sensible move in bringing on longtime DH and fan favorite Edgar Martinez as the team’s new hitting coach. Martinez, who spent his entire 18-year career in the Pacific Northwest, replaces Howard Johnson (who was reassigned to the team’s minor league system). The move, according to GM Jack Zduriencik, is meant to serve as a catalyst for the team’s horrendous offense — the Mariners rank dead last in baseball in batting average (.231), although that may be due to their bad luck with balls in play (.275, also last in the game). The power is lacking to nobody’s surprise, as the team ranks 23rd in extra base hits (182). They do rank 10th in homers with 71 (thanks in large part to Nelson Cruz), so there’s reason to believe that Martinez could affect the kind of change for which the front office is hoping.

Martinez’s credentials are magnificent enough; the erstwhile third baseman hit .312 for his career with 309 homers and a .933 OPS. It’s impressive that he managed to do all of this in Seattle, until you realize that he played the bulk of his career in the Kingdome, a park much more conducive to right-handed power than Safeco Field. Sure, Martinez led the league in RBIs in his first full season in Safeco, adding 37 homers that year for good measure. He appears to be the exception rather than the rule, as we’ve seen plenty of power hitters struggle in Seattle; with that being said, if Martinez can have a positive impact on the debilitating batting woes of Robinson Cano, Austin Jackson or Mike Zunino (the rest of the lineup is excluded for the sake of saving space), then he’ll be worth more than his salary.

Perhaps the strongest benefit Martinez could provide to the team is helping them cut down on batters’ whiffs while increasing the number of walks they draw. Only the Houston Astros have more strikeouts than the Mariners in 2015, and their 22.2 strikeout percentage is equally troubling. Moreover, their 7.8 walk percentage, good for 15th in the game, is nothing to write home about. Martinez never struck out more than 95 times until his final season, and you can forgive a 41-year-old DH for swinging and missing 107 times. He did, however, have four seasons with more than 100 walks, as well as six other seasons wherein he had more walks than strikeouts. Zunino struck out 158 times last year as a 23-year-old catcher and is on pace for 183 this year with just 15 walks to his name. His case is a microcosm of the team, but still perfectly symbolic of the sorry state of the lineup.

The Mariners really can’t hit any worse than they already have, so Martinez should be able to help improve the counting stats simply on merit of being one of the greatest hitters of his generation (and of all time, some would say). His guidance should be crucial to the development of some of the younger bats. The potential for failure is still very strong, and if the team continues to struggle at the plate, Martinez will take the fall even though it so obviously won’t be his fault.

Perry Rosenbaum is a featured writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Facebook or on Twitter @PerryFRosenbaum

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