Could the Minnesota Twins sign a former enemy bat?

J.D. Martinez

Originally part of the current World Series participant, the Houston Astros, Martinez couldn’t carve out a starting role with the Astros, hitting .251/.300/.387 over 3 years with the Astros, playing 252 games and just under 900 at bats.

He broke out with a full-time job in Detroit, however, being one of the first guys who really took advantage of changing his swing plane to see the ball absolutely jump off of his bat. His first season in Detroit, he hit .315/.358/.553 with 23 home runs and 30 doubles over 480 plate appearances.

Over his three-plus seasons with the Tigers, Martinez has battled injuries, having just one season where he played more than 125 games or had more than 500 plate appearances, but he’s still produced plenty, even when only on the field for 2/3 of the season. He hit .300/.361/.551 over 458 games as a Tiger, knocking out 99 home runs.

He’s also done his fair share of that work against the Twins, playing 54 games against the team, coming up to the plate 221 times, hitting .302/.348/.522 with 10 home runs.

He did have a pretty amazing final run with the Arizona Diamondbacks this season, hitting .302/.366/.741 with 29 home runs over 62 games after being traded by the Tigers. The D-backs will certainly make a strong effort to re-sign Martinez, but he will be a guy that will draw plenty of interest.

For the Twins, Martinez would provide significant right-handed power, which is a premium thing in the modern game, though the team would want to ensure that his higher walk rate this season wasn’t a fluke, as he walked at a 10.8% rate, the first time he was ever over 10% in his career.

If Martinez could be signed for 2-3 years at $20M-25M, he would certainly be someone the Twins should consider. Beyond that in years or annual salary should be something where the Twins walk away.