J. D. Martinez

Julio Daniel Martinez (born August 21, 1987) is an American professional baseball outfielder and designated hitter who is a free agent.

He has played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Houston Astros, Detroit Tigers, Arizona Diamondbacks, Boston Red Sox, and Los Angeles Dodgers.

Martinez attended Flanagan High School in Pembroke Pines, Florida, and graduated in 2006.

The Minnesota Twins selected Martinez in the 36th round, with the 1,086th overall selection, of the 2006 Major League Baseball draft, but he did not sign with the Twins.

Instead, Martinez attended Nova Southeastern University (NSU), where he played college baseball for the Sharks from 2007 through 2009.

He set the school's career record for home runs with 32, ranked second in batting average (.394), third in runs batted in (RBI, 142), and fourth in slugging percentage (.691).

A native of Miami, Florida, Martinez attended Nova Southeastern University (NSU) before the Astros selected him in the 20th round with the 611th pick in the 2009 amateur draft.

He is the first player drafted from NSU to play in the major leagues.

He is a six-time MLB All-Star selection and a three-time Silver Slugger Award winner, as well as the only player to earn the latter honor twice in the same season.

In 2009, he batted .428 with 15 home runs and set a program record with 73 runs scored.

He was a two-time All-Sunshine State Conference baseball player.

The Houston Astros selected Martinez in the 20th round of the 2009 Major League Baseball draft with the 611th overall selection.

He was signed by Greg Brown, who later became the head coach at NSU.

Martinez started his professional career with the Greeneville Astros of the Rookie-level Appalachian League, where he batted .403 before earning a promotion to the Tri-City ValleyCats of the Class A-Short Season New York–Penn League.

Martinez started the 2010 season with Lexington Legends of the Class A South Atlantic League (SAL) before earning a mid-season promotion to the Corpus Christi Hooks of the Class AA Texas League.

He led SAL in each of batting (.362), on-base percentage (.433), and slugging percentage (.598).

At the time of his promotion to the Texas League, he also led the SAL in hits, doubles, extra-base hits, runs scored and total bases.

Martinez was honored as SAL Player of the Year, Most Valuable Player (MVP), and the Houston Astros' Minor League Player of the Year.

He made his MLB debut in 2011.

A right-handed thrower and batter, Martinez stands 6 ft tall and weighs 230 lb.

Martinez started the 2011 season with Corpus Christi; over 88 games, he batted .338/.414/.552/.959, 25 doubles, 13 home runs, 72 RBI, 42 bases on balls, and 55 strikeouts.

He was named a Texas League All-Star.

On July 30, 2011, the Astros called up Martinez to replace Hunter Pence, whom they had traded to the Philadelphia Phillies.

Martinez became the first player drafted from Nova Southeastern University to debut in Major League Baseball.

The following month, he drove in 28 runs, establishing an Astros rookie record for one month.

On April 13, 2012, Martinez hit the first ever home run in the new Marlins Park.

With a runner on in the eighth, he hit an Edward Mujica offering into the Clevelander bar beyond the left-field wall for a game-tying home run.

He led the club with 55 RBI in 2012.

During a batting practice session in July 2013, hitting coach John Mallee confronted Martinez about his swing: unless he changed his approach to hitting, the best-case scenario for his playing career would be to "bounce between the big leagues and the minors."

As difficult as the message was for Martinez to accept at the time, he pondered Mallee's words.

The next month, while in the trainer's room after spraining his left wrist, Martinez watched ESPN highlights of Milwaukee Brewers' slugger Ryan Braun batting.

He realized that his swing bore no resemblance to Braun's. From there, he began to dedicate himself to study other top MLB hitters including Albert Pujols and Miguel Cabrera to investigate what improvements he could make to his swing to become a more successful hitter.

He then observed teammate Jason Castro, who had just made the All-Star team and was on pace to triple his home run output, and realized, "Castro’s got the same swing they do."

Martinez asked Castro how he had learned his technique, to which he replied, “You’ve got to see my guys in California.” The day after the season ended, Martinez was in Santa Clarita for an appointment with hitting experts Robert Van Scoyoc and Craig Wallenbrock.

After two weeks in Santa Clarita, Martinez traveled to play for the Leones del Caracas in the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League.

In one month, he batted .312 with six home runs and a .957 OPS.

In 2014, Martinez was inducted into the NSU Sharks Hall of Fame.

On September 4, 2017, Martinez became the 18th player in MLB history to hit four home runs in a single game, doing so versus the Los Angeles Dodgers.

During the Red Sox' 2018 World Series run, he won the American League (AL) Hank Aaron Award as the league's top offensive performer, leading the league in RBIs, while placing second in batting average and home runs.

He also won the 2018 Players Choice Award for Player of the Year.