Victor Martinez

A 6’2” 210lb switch hitting catcher, sometimes first-baseman, Victor Jesús Martinez was born on December 23, 1978 in Ciudad Bolivar, Bolivar, Venezuela. He was signed as an amateur free agent in 1996 by the Cleveland Indians and began his professional career with the Mahoning Valley Scrappers in the New York Penn League. He had a decent season with the Scrappers, batting .277 and hitting 4 home-runs with 36 RBIs.

The next couple of years were spent between Single-A teams Columbus and Kinston where he continued to improve, his best year coming in 2000 when he hit .329 in 114 games by going 138-for-420 to secure one of his two minor league batting titles. Martinez was promoted to Double-A Akron in 2002, after which he made his debut with Cleveland as a September call-up.

Victor Martinez spent 2003 rotating between Triple-A Buffalo Bisons and the Indians with a few games (3) played with Double-A Akron. Martinez compiled a .315 average for the season, largely helped by his .328 average for Buffalo. His fielding was stellar as well, committing only 4 errors as Catcher and 2 at First Base in 128 total starts.

The Cleveland hierarchy showed confidence in Victor Martinez, and he was elected to the starting catchers position for the start of the 2004 season. Martinez responded by batting .283 for the year with 23 homers and 108 RBI This seta new record for an Indians catcher, and to cap off a brilliant season, Martinez was elected to his first All Star team. http://boston.redsox.mlb.com/team/player.jsp?player_id=400121

Victor Martinez continued to excel for the Indians until July 31, 2009, when he was traded to the Boston Red Sox for Justin Masterson, Nick Hagadone, and Bryan Price.

Victor Martinez had a slow start to the 2010 season, averaging .262 for his first 16 games (16-for-61) and having a few problems with his throwing arm. Up until April 22, 2010, 24 of 25 batters were successful in stealing against him. Martinez is respected for his leadership skills though, with team manager Terry Francona praising Martinez as an upbeat leader. This compliment surprisingly came after he had allowed 9 stolen bases in a game against the Texas Rangers on April 20.

Victor Martinez began the 2009 season with Cleveland. He played 99 games for the Indians before being traded to the Red Sox on July 31. He was batting .284 for Cleveland when he left, going 107-for-377 while pounding 21 doubles and 15 home-runs. In his 56 games for the Red Sox that year he smashed 12 doubles and 8 home runs while batting .336 and batting-in 41.

His combined totals for the two teams saw him finish 5th in the American League in RBIs with 108, and being elected to the All Star Team for the third time. Defensively Victor Martinez was as impressive, logging a fielding percentage at first base of .994 and one of .992 behind the plate, accomplishing a streak of 68 error-less games in doing so.

After joining the Sox Victor Martinez’s season took off like a rocket. Offensively he was on fire and reached base safely in 50 of his 56 games with Boston on his way to scoring 32 runs for the team. He established a 25 game hitting streak between August 8, and September 26 before breaking it with an unsuccessful pitch hit when he reached on an error by Yankees second baseman Robinson Cano in a ninth inning appearance against new York.

Martinez ended 2009 on a high note, reaching base safely in his last 30 starts and bagging his first career grand-slam off Aaron Laffey of the Indians on October 3 in front of a home crowd.

Victor Martinez spent two and a half months on the disabled list (DL) in 2008, after injuring his right elbow and needing an operation to remove loose bodies and clean up the right elbow joint. Martinez had been batting .278 with no homers and 21 RBIs in 198 at-bats up to that point. He started off the season by batting .350 in April, that average dropping to .221 by May, and in June he bottomed out at .200 before the Indians decided to bench him.

The arthroscopic surgery was performed successfully by Indians team physician Dr. Mark Schickendantz. Martinez was activated from the DL on August 29 and went on to hit .278 over the final five weeks of the season