Sandy Martinez

Angel “Sandy” Martínez was a catcher for eight years in the major leagues, from 1995 to 2004. He played in 218 games for six major-league teams, finishing with a career slash line of .230/.284/.333 with 6 home runs, 51 RBIs, and a 33 percent caught-stealing percentage. He caught Kerry Wood’s historic 20-strikeout game for the Chicago Cubs in 1998.

Martínez was born on October 8, 1970, in Villa Mella, Distrito Nacional, Dominican Republic. He grew up on the family farm with six brothers and three sisters and was raised by his mother. He said she had a strong work ethic, got up every day, never complained, and made sure there was food on the table. She inspired him to work hard with the hopes of being able to take care of her through baseball. Baseball was a constant in his life; he played the game with his cousins all the time growing up. He lived close to Jesús Figueroa, a former player and longtime batting-practice pitcher and bullpen coach for the Toronto Blue Jays,1 who was instrumental in his development throughout his entire career.2

Right fielder José Herrera was from Villa Mella as well, and both broke into the big leagues the same year, Herrera with Oakland. As an 8-year-old, Martínez was struck in the face in the on-deck circle when his teammate accidentally let go of the bat swinging at a pitch. This left a visible scar and a lump above his nose near his right eye that he would carry for the rest of his life.3

Martínez as a catcher threw right-handed but batted from the left side. He stood 6-feet-2 and was listed at 200 pounds. He played for six major-league teams over the course of his eight-year major-league career, the Toronto Blue Jays, Chicago Cubs, Florida Marlins, Montréal Expos, Cleveland Indians, and the Red Sox.

Martínez honed his skills in Santo Domingo at a large sports complex complete with several basketball courts and baseball fields where, he said, a game was always being played. The complex also had the facilities of the New York Mets and Pittsburgh Pirates, and he was able to train with their players and continue his skills growth.4

Signed by the Blue Jays in 1990, Martínez played 44 games for their Dominican Summer League team that year. Sandy initially only spoke Spanish and learned English while playing. He split the 1991 season between the rookie-level Medicine Hat Blue Jays and the advanced Class-A Dunedin Blue Jays in the Florida State League. This was the first time Martínez really left his home and it was an eye-opening experience playing in Idaho and Montana as part of the Pioneer League North Division. One of the unfortunate learning experiences he encountered (along with his teammates) was racism. He said that some people shunned them due to their color of their skin when they went out for pregame or postgame meals. Looking back 33 years later, Martínez said, “People didn’t want to be around us. You got to go through it.”5

In 1991, his first season, Martínez exemplified the attributes he’d have as a big-league catcher: defense-first as a catcher and struggling at the plate (.177 batting average). In 1992 with the Medicine Hat Blue Jays and Dunedin Blue Jays, his hitting improved to .249 in 239 plate appearances, with 6 home runs and 43 RBIs.6

With Hagerstown of the Class-A Sally League in 1993, season, Martínez again improved at the plate, batting .263 with 9 home runs and 46 RBIs. He returned to High-A Dunedin for the 1994 season, playing 122 games and batting .260.

Martínez opened the 1995 season in the Double-A Southern League, playing for the Knoxville Smokies. In 41 games, he hit for a .229 average. He was ranked as the 77th best prospect by Baseball America, eight spots ahead of future Montréal Expos teammate and Hall of Famer Vladimir Guerrero.7

After injuries to Randy Knorr, Carlos Delgado, and Lance Parrish,8 the Blue Jays brought Martínez up to the majors in June 1995. He made his major-league debut on June 24 against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium, catching right-hander Juan Guzmán. The Yankees won the game, 10-2, with Martínez catching the entire game. He went 1-for-4, with a single to center off fellow Dominican Josías Manzanillo as his first major-league hit. He hit his first major-league home run in his next game, a three-run homer off Roger Clemens against the Red Sox at Fenway Park in Boston on June 27.

Martínez stuck with the Jays the rest of the season, appearing in 62 games for manager Cito Gaston, batting .241 driving in 25 runs. He was projected as part of the rebuilding Blue Jays’ youth movement with, among others, Shawn Green, Alex Gonzalez, Tomás Pérez, and Carlos Delgado.9

In his rookie season Martínez went by his true first name, Angel. In an interview in 1996, his second season, Blue Jays broadcaster Jerry Howarth noted that “Sandy” was written on his catcher’s mitt and asked about it. Martínez answered, “Ever since I was a baby, my mother has called me Sandy. Angel is my first name, but no one in my family or my friends ever calls me that. Only here. I just haven’t mentioned it to anyone.” Howarth said, “Sandy, thank you for sharing that with me. No longer are you Angel Martínez. From now on you are Sandy Martínez. Are you okay if I tell everyone what you just shared with me right here for our interview?” In a book published in 2019, Howarth related, “He said that would be fine. Tom threw it down to me in the dugout and I opened up that postgame interview with the new Sandy Martínez story. I am proud to say that from that point on in his eight-year major league career, he was called Sandy.”10

In 1996 Martínez settled into his role as the Blue Jays’ primary backup catcher behind Charlie O’Brien. He started 68 games and came in as either a pinch-hitter or a replacement catcher in eight more. The 76 games were the most Martínez played in a major-league season. On May 11 he produced the game-winning hit in the bottom of the 11th off Red Sox pitcher Heathcliff Slocumb, scoring Juan Samuel from second base.

Martínez finished the season with a .227 batting average, 3 home runs, and 3 triples (tied with five others for second-most in the majors for a catcher in 1996. He made three errors with a 35 percent caught-stealing rate. After the Blue Jays signed catcher Benito Santiago in December 1996, Charlie O’Brien became the primary backup. Martínez was sent back down to Triple A so he could catch every day.11

Martínez began the 1997 season with Syracuse of the Triple-A International League and was the primary catcher for 92 of the team’s 142 games. In early September he was recalled to the Blue Jays after Santiago was hit on the hand with a pitch.12 In a starting assignment on September 10 vs. the Oakland A’s, he got his only at-bats of the season. He went 0-for-2 with a walk, a run scored, and one caught stealing. 

The Blue Jays traded Martínez to the Chicago Cubs on December 11, 1997, for a player to be named later, who turned out to be Trevor Schaffer.13

Martínez caught Kerry Wood’s 20-strikeout game for the Cubs ​​on May 6, 1998, at Wrigley Field. It was the first time Martínez had caught Wood. The game began with Wood hitting home-plate umpire Jerry Meals directly in his mask with a fastball. Meals said, “First pitch. I’ll never forget it. How could I? As an umpire you hardly ever get drilled right in the mask with the first pitch of the game.”14 Wood recalled, “I remember Biggio trying to get a look at me. He just sort of half-squared around like he was going to bunt – just to get a look at the pitch and time it. And I think maybe his barrel got in front of Sandy Martínez’s mask and Sandy lost sight of it and never got his glove back up to it.”15

Martínez said of Wood’s pitching, “… [I]t was unbelievable. … Everything I called, he already had the grip for it. He only shook me off three or four times that game. … That day it seemed like we were communicating mentally. It was just a game you can’t really describe. I feel very lucky for catching it.”16 He told another sportswriter, “I didn’t know until the seventh inning that he had that many K’s. In the seventh inning, for some reason, I looked to left field and the bleachers, and saw all the K’s and said, ‘Damn, we got so many.’ I didn’t realize he had that many K’s. The only thing I had in my mind was to try to win the game.”17 Martínez is tied with four other catchers for most putouts in a nine-inning game (20).18

Martínez made his only postseason appearance against the Atlanta Braves in Game Three of the 1998 NLDS. He singled and scored a run off Greg Maddux in the bottom of the eighth inning in his only at-bat. The Braves won the game, 6-2, to sweep the series. Martínez finished the 1998 season with 45 appearances for the Cubs, and career-high stats for batting average (.264), slugging percentage (.391), and OPS (.754).

Martínez appeared in 17 games for the Cubs during the 1999 season, where his offensive numbers declined. He batted .167 with one home run and one RBI. The Cubs released him at the end of the season and the Florida Marlins signed him on December 6, 1999.

Martinez started the 2000 season with the Marlins, getting into seven games before being optioned to Triple-A Calgary. He was recalled in September for three more games before entering free agency in October. This was a recurring pattern for his remaining time as a player in professional baseball: spending most of his time with the Triple-A affiliate and a few games with the major-league club.

Martínez was signed by the Montréal Expos as a backup catcher in 2001 and appeared in one game, on Opening Day against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field on April 2, 2001. Starting catcher Michael Barrett was ejected in the eighth inning for arguing with plate umpire Rick Reed. Martínez grounded into a double play in his only at-bat, in the ninth inning.19 Vladimir Guerrero knocked in the Expos’ go-ahead run in the top of the 10th. Martínez left the game after injuring his elbow.20 Martínez later had Tommy John surgery, ending his season.

Martinez spent most of the 2002 season with the Expos’ Triple-A affiliate, the Ottawa Lynx, batting .226 before entering free agency again. He was signed and released by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, and the Kansas City Royals, playing 24 games for the Royals’ Triple-A affiliate in Omaha Royals before being released on June 8, 2003. He then played in 34 games for the Piratas de Campeche of the Mexican League. 

For 2004 Martinez signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates but was traded at the start of the season to the Cleveland Indians, who sent him to Triple-A Buffalo. (He batted .274 with 17 home runs for Buffalo and played in one game for the Indians.) On August 31, in time for postseason eligibility, he was sold to the Red Sox.21

Martinez appeared in three games and went hitless in four at-bats. His cousin, right-handed pitcher Anastacio Martínez, also played (earlier in the season) for the 2004 Red Sox, earning a victory in relief of Pedro Martínez (no relation). Anastacio’s entire major-league career consisted of 11 games with the Red Sox that year. Sandy and Anastacio Martínez are the only relatives to play for a Red Sox World Series champion.22

Martinez returned to the minors for three more seasons, ending his playing career with three games for the Albuquerque Isotopes of the Pacific Coast League in 2007. He never played against his cousin Anastacio in a regular-season game but hit a two-run home run off him in a spring training game for the New York Mets in 2006.23 “I told him not to throwing anything close to me. He threw a fastball inside, then another fastball up and in, then a curveball and I hit a home run. I was laughing around the bases and I said, ‘Don’t throw anything close!’ but we laugh about it now,” said Sandy.24

In 2007 Martinez signed with the Dodgers but was released by the end of spring training. He spent time in the Marlins farm system. In 2008 he tried to focus most of the year on recovering from a meniscus injury but by the end of the year the pain was still there and he finally retired from playing.

Martínez began managing the Washington Nationals’ Dominican Summer League team in Boca Chica, Dominican Republic, in 2011. As of 2023 he was also the on-field instructor for the Nationals’ year-round baseball academy based at the same location. The academy moved to a new upgraded facility in 2014, and Martínez said, “Compared to where we were before, things have gotten better, the kids have gotten better and we’re showing it.”25

He is the father of two sons, former Arizona Diamondbacks minor-leaguer Sandy Martínez (catcher) and Angel Martínez, as of 2023 an infielder in the Cleveland Guardians farm system. His wife, Indhira, is an accountant and lawyer.26

Sources

Sources used include a telephone interview conducted with Sandy Martínez on June 14, 2023. Details from his early career are mostly based on Toronto Star articles. Multiple articles on Kerry Wood’s 20-strikeout game include articles from the Chicago Tribune, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, and MLB.com. Statistics were taken from Baseball Reference, Baseball Almanac, and ESPN.

Notes

1 Figueroa is the longest-serving member of the Toronto Blue Jays. He joined as a batting-practice pitcher in 1989. CBC News: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/jays-batting-practice-pitcher-1.3762860.

2 Sandy Martínez, telephone interview, June 14, 2023.

3 Marty Ormsby, “Martinez Accepts Role as Jays’ Backup Catcher,” Toronto Star, May 2, 1996.

4 Martínez interview.

5 Martínez interview.

6 Ormsby.

7 1995 Baseball America MLB Prospect Rankings https://www.thebaseballcube.com/content/prospects_mlb/1995~BA/.

8 Richard Griffin, “Fancy Prose Can’t Conceal Jays’ Lineup Woes,” Toronto Star, February 15, 1996.

9 Jim Byers, “Blue Jays: Give Us Time and We’ll Rebuild,” Toronto Star October 3, 1995

10 Jerry Howarth, Hello, Friends! Stories from My Life and Blue Jays Baseball (Toronto: ECW Press, 2019), accessed via Google Books, June 2023.

11 “Ball Notes,” Toronto Star, March 13, 1997.

12 Allan Ryan, “Banged-Up Jays Throw One Away,” Toronto Star, September 4, 1997.

13 1997 Major League Transactions, Baseball Reference. https://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/majors/1997-transactions.shtml.

14 Dan Wiederer, “Kerry Wood and ‘the Greatest Game Ever Pitched’: The Oral History of May 6, 1998, at Wrigley Field,” Chicago Tribune, May 6, 2018. https://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/cubs/ct-spt-kerry-wood-20-strikeout-anniversary-20180501-htmlstory.html.

15 Wiederer.

16 Chris Anderson, “Part of Baseball History,” Sarasota Herald-Tribune, February 24, 2003.  https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/news/2003/02/24/part-of-baseball-history/28741218007/.

17 Alyson Footer, “Remembering the Most Dominant Start Ever,” MLB.com, May 6, 2023, https://www.mlb.com/news/kerry-wood-astros-recall-20-strikeout-game-c274851112.

18 The other catchers are Rich Gedman (catching Roger Clemens’ first 20-strikeout game), Dan Wilson (catching Randy Johnson’s second 20-strikeout game), and Wilson Ramos (catching Max Scherzer), each of whom caught 20-K games. Jerry Grote caught 19 strikeouts by Tom Seaver and caught a pop foul for a 20th out.

19 Baseball Reference, https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHN/CHN200104020.shtml.

20 ESPN Baseball, “Cubs Unable to Mount Rally in 10th,” https://www.espn.com/mlb/2001/20010402/recap/monchc.html.

21 Gordon Edes, “Red Sox Notebook,” Boston Globe, September 1, 2004: C7.

22 Bill Nowlin, Boston Red Sox Firsts: The Players, Moments, and Records That Were First in Team History (Essex, Connecticut: Lyons Press, 2023), 130.

23 MLB game recap, ESPN, March 15, 2006. https://www.espn.com/mlb/recap/_/gameId/260315120.

24 Martínez interview.

25 James Wagner, “In Dominican Republic, Nationals Want Prospects to Be Comfortable, but Not Too Comfortable,” Washington Post, January 7, 2015. https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/nationals/in-dominican-republic-nationals-want-prospects-to-be-comfortable-but-not-too-comfortable/2015/01/07/d75f3cd2-8b70-11e4-a085-34e9b9f09a58_story.html.

26 Martínez interview.