Domingo Martinez

“It is difficult to muster up much sympathy these days for the young men who make their livings in professional baseball, but I submit for your consideration a possible exception,” Toronto sportswriter Marty York commented in 1993.1 He was referring to Domingo Martínez. Players have complained for decades about lacking chances to prove their worth, but very few can point to tremendous productivity in their limited opportunities. Domingo Martínez had only 22 at-bats in the majors, but his productivity in such a low total was almost unmatched over close to 70 years. His nine hits during Toronto’s back-to-back World Series years gave him a career .409 batting average. From the start of World War II through 2000, only Vic Rodriguez of the 1984 Orioles and 1989 Twins achieved a higher lifetime average (.429) with that many at-bats.2 For Martínez, it wasn’t a fluke. “For more than eight seasons, Martínez [had] toiled as a mostly impressive farmhand while working his way up the ladder at every level of the Jays’ organization,” York wrote.3

Domingo Emilio Martínez y Lafontaine was born in Santo Domingo, the capital city of the Dominican Republic. Many sources, including baseball-reference.com, identify his date of birth as August 4, 1965, but during his second pro season he wrote the year as 1967 on a Spanish-language questionnaire he completed.4 He is a cousin of Francisco Cordero, who pitched in the majors from 1999 through 2012 and said Martínez was “pretty much” his favorite player growing up. “I saw how proud my dad was that he made it to the major leagues,” Cordero said just a few years into his own major-league career.5

Little has been made public about Martínez’s childhood. However, he once commented that as he learned baseball then, field conditions in Santo Domingo required full concentration on defense. “The fields are brutal,” he said, “so you’ve always got to keep your eye on the ball because you never know where it’s going. Yes, I think that background helped me.”6

A Blue Jays media guide reported that he attended La Isabela primary school in Santo Domingo’s Pantoja neighborhood, and later the nearby Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer high school.7 He attended the latter for two years, according to the aforementioned questionnaire. On it he also said he was signed on behalf of Toronto by Epy Guerrero, known as the Super Scout.8 Martínez signed as an amateur, non-drafted free agent on August 23, 1984, shortly after his 19th birthday.9

Martínez made his professional, regular-season debut on June 21, 1985. He had been assigned to the Blue Jays of the rookie-level Gulf Coast League (in 2021 called the Florida Complex League). One week into his pro career, he was the offensive star in an 11-inning win over the Gulf Coast Royals with a homer and two singles. Through July 3 he played in all 12 of his team’s games and led his team with a .327 batting average.10 He played in 58 of 62 games and led the league’s third basemen in chances and assists, and tied for the most putouts. Among all batters he was tied for second in total bases, and his .297 batting average was eighth-best. He was an all-star and won the R. Howard Webster Award as his team’s most valuable player.

During his first pro season, Martínez experienced common problems due to unfamiliarity with English. He could speak just a little, and couldn’t read any. One day the team bus stopped at a McDonald’s, and after the teammate in line ahead of him ordered, Martínez stepped forward and simply said, “Same.” He was hoping for a Big Mac or Quarter Pounder. He didn’t open his bag until back on the bus and was disappointed to find only a Danish and a carton of milk.11

For 1986, Martínez was promoted to Ventura County of the Class-A California League. He was switched from third base to first, which was his predominant position for the rest of his time with US teams. From 1986 through 1990, he was his team’s regular first baseman but in each of those five seasons his batting average was modest, always within nine points of .255. What had happened after his exciting debut season? “He ate a lot of junk food and ballooned to 230 pounds,” noted Matt Michael of the Syracuse Post-Standard. That weight wasn’t optimal, even though Martínez was 6-feet-2. Michael also reported that Martínez made frequent telephone calls to Santo Domingo, “seeking encouragement from his parents,” but that his mother died in 1985 and his father in 1986. “With his support system shattered, Martinez lacked motivation to lose weight, and he played just well enough to keep the Jays interested,” Michael concluded.12

For 1987, Martínez remained in Class A except with Dunedin in the Florida State League. He then spent 1988 through 1990 with Knoxville in the Double-A Southern League. Though he couldn’t replicate his Gulf Coast League batting average, he did build power and productivity during his Class-A and Double-A years. In 1987 he led Florida State League batters with 32 doubles and topped his team with 65 RBIs. In 1988 he led the Southern League with 14 game-winning RBIs. After the 1990 season, Martínez’s third with Knoxville, he was finally promoted to Triple A, after leading his club with 17 homers and 66 RBIs. He was also second in walks with 51.13 He never played below the Triple-A level in the minors again.

Though Martínez had impressed enough to be the starting first baseman for the Triple-A Syracuse Chiefs, it’s quite unlikely anyone considered him a hot prospect. “Nothing in Martinez’s past foreshadowed the banner year he would enjoy in 1991,” Matt Michael observed. “But never before had Martinez worked with Syracuse trainer Randy Holland, who made slimming Martinez down a pet project.”14 By getting Martínez down by 20 pounds, to 210, so much clicked: He was second in the league in total bases, tied for second with 83 RBIs, had the third-best slugging percentage at .465, tied for third in hits, and finished fourth in pursuit of the batting crown with a .313 average.15

In October 1991 Martínez was added to Toronto’s 40-man roster, and on February 17, 1992, the Jays signed him to a one-year contract.16 Then during spring training he had just one hit in 21 at-bats, and on March 23 he was demoted to Syracuse’s camp. “It was my first time ever at the major-league camp and I wanted to play so much and I wanted to do everything good,” Martínez said. “I put too much pressure on myself.”17

Martínez played in 116 games with Syracuse. He batted .274 and led the team with 21 homers. Three came from June 22 to 28, along with six RBIs and an average of .322, for which he was named Toronto’s minor-league player of the week.18 He was recalled by the Blue Jays on September 8, after rosters expanded. He didn’t ride the bench for long.

Martínez made his major-league debut on September 11, 1992, in the first game of a doubleheader in Texas, against the Rangers. He entered as a defensive substitution in the ninth inning, but had no fielding chances. The Blue Jays won, 7-5. He entered the nightcap in the bottom of the eighth inning with his team trailing. He again didn’t touch a live ball, and still didn’t get to bat.

Martínez had to wait a full week to play again and bat in the majors for the first time. On September 18, Toronto hosted Texas. The Blue Jays led 10-0 after the top of the sixth inning, so with two outs in the bottom half, Martínez pinch-hit for John Olerud. On a 1-and-1 count from reliever Brian Bohanon, Martínez lined a single to right field. A groundout then ended the inning. His defense for the remainder of the game was fine, and two of his three putouts completed inning-ending double plays. But Martínez saved his biggest splash for the bottom of the eighth. With two outs and a runner on first, he homered on the first pitch from Mike Jeffcoat, deep to right-center. He played in four more games through October 4 but batted in only two. He had hits in both contests, and by going 5-for-8 all told, he concluded his stint with Toronto with a .625 batting average.

Martínez wasn’t eligible for the postseason, but was voted a 15 percent share ($18,000) of the team’s World Series share. Later, in a vote of confidence by the front office, the club listed him among 15 players who couldn’t be selected by the Colorado Rockies or Florida Marlins in the expansion draft.19

On March 4, 1993, the Blue Jays signed Martínez to another one-year contract. He was in Toronto’s Opening Day lineup, on April 6 in Seattle. He batted sixth and played first base. He went 1-for-4 in an 8-1 loss. He played the next day as a ninth-inning defensive replacement in a 2-0 victory for the visitors. Though Matt Michael said Martínez had delivered “a monster spring training” for the Blue Jays, after a few days of inactivity he was sent back to Syracuse on April 13, reportedly because Toronto wanted him to relearn third base there.20 That experiment ended quickly. He played just three games at third base for Syracuse, plus two in the outfield, yet logged 121 games at first base. His batting average was almost identical to a year earlier, .273 instead of .274, but he increased his slugging percentage to .488 from .468 and boosted his RBIs to 79 from 62.

As in 1992, Martínez got into a few games with Toronto in September and early October. He played briefly on September 7 and 10, and then waited 18 days for his next opportunity. At Milwaukee on September 28, he played his final full game in the majors, manning first base and batting cleanup. His highlight that night was a long homer in the second inning, off Teddy Higuera. Martínez pinch-hit the next night and drove in two runs with a single. On October 1 he played the final few innings of a game in Baltimore and was in Toronto’s final regular-season game of 1993, on October 3. He played from the second inning through the seventh. Martínez went 1-for-3, with a single in the fourth inning. He struck out in his final plate appearance, in the top of the sixth. He didn’t have any fielding chances after that, and thus concluded his short but impressive major-league career.

During the first half of March 1994, Steve Milton wrote for The Sporting News that Martínez “understandably wants to be traded” because he couldn’t conceivably bump either Olerud or designated hitter Paul Molitor from Toronto’s lineups often. What’s more, “Martinez’s chances of making the team as a bat off the bench depend on whether manager Cito Gaston goes with 11 or 10 pitchers,” Milton wrote.21 On March 29, 1994, the Jays traded him to the Chicago White Sox for outfielder Mike Huff.

Martínez might not have been encouraged by his new situation with Chicago. “Domingo Martinez just can’t catch a break, wrote Mike Rutsey in the Financial Post. “Martinez was dealt to the White Sox yesterday where he’ll be able to sit and watch last year’s league MVP, Frank Thomas.”22 Predictably, Martínez spent all of 1994 with Chicago’s Nashville team in the American Association. He had his fourth consecutive praiseworthy Triple-A season, with 22 homers, 81 RBIs, and a .270 average in 131 games.

Since the players strike ended the major-league season before mid-August, there were no White Sox games in September for which Martínez could have been promoted. Instead, he almost won Nashville the American Association championship series. On September 12 his homer was the only run against Indianapolis to tie the best-of-five series at one win apiece. In the finale two days later, he resisted elimination with a three-run homer in the eighth inning, but Nashville fell short and lost, 7-5.23

Martínez became a free agent, and signed with Louisville, the St. Louis Cardinals’ affiliate in the American Association. That winter he was the Most Valuable Player of the Dominican League.24 A hip injury kept him out of some of Louisville’s games in late June and early July, but after 64 games his offensive stats hadn’t slipped much from recent seasons. He was released on July 11, though the Louisville Courier-Journal didn’t identify a reason.25 He then disappeared from newspapers through September, suggesting that his hip injury had become persistent.

By mid-February 1996, Martínez was with the Reynosa Broncos of the Mexican League, which had Triple-A status.26He was productive at bat for Reynosa, and managed to be even more so when he joined Triple-A Rochester, a Baltimore affiliate, in early August. In 29 games he had a .362 batting average and a .603 slugging percentage. Those games were the last he played during a regular season in the United States.27 

Except for part of the 1999 season, when Martínez played with the Mexico City Red Devils in the Mexican League, from 1997 through 2001 he played in Japan. In 1997 and 1998 he was with the Seibu Lions, and from 1999 to 2001 he was with the Yomiuri Giants. In the first four of his five seasons in Japan he hit between 16 and 31 homers and his batting average ranged from .283 to .324.

Early in 1999, Martínez attempted a return to pro ball in the United States. On January 5 he agreed to a minor-league contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates. He was among 20 nonroster invitees to spring training, but on March 11 he was reassigned to Pittsburgh’s minor-league camp.28 He instead switched to Tokyo’s Yomiuri club. On a bigger stage little more than a year later, he demonstrated that he still “had it.” On March 28, 2000, his two-run homer in a 9-5 game helped the Yomiuri Giants sweep a series from the New York Mets just before the Mets opened the season in Japan against the Chicago Cubs.29

During his final season, 2001, Martínez generated as much power as he had in 1998 and 2000 but his average was an uncharacteristic .237, and he played in fewer games than he had during his four other seasons in Japan. In February 2002 Martínez was in camp with the Orioles. “I enjoyed Japan,” he said, “but I’m really happy to be back in the United States.” But the Orioles made it clear his contract would probably be sold to a Japanese club again. Baltimore released him in mid-March when he wouldn’t accept a minor-league assignment. He did have a last hurrah of sorts as a player in April 2003 when he was among more than 50 players named to the Dominican Republic’s initial roster for the Pan American Games.30

As of early 2022, Martínez was the Caribbean scout for Japan’s Chunichi Dragons. He had that role for them back in 2009, if not earlier.31

Sources

Except where otherwise noted, seasonal highlights through 1992 are from the Toronto Blue Jays Official Guide 1993 (see Note 7). In general, the source for additional statistics, along with details from Toronto games, is baseball-reference.com.

Notes

1 Marty York, “Jay Evokes Sympathy for Predicament,” Globe & Mail (Toronto), May 7, 1993: C9. Thanks to Shelley (surname not provided) of the Toronto Public Library’s Answerline Staff for providing the full citation for this article.

2 From https://www.statmuse.com/mlb/, where it is possible to generate a variety of lists of players, ranked, such as the highest batting averages or slugging percentages with a certain minimum number of at-bats or plate appearances with the most.

3 York.

4 The questionnaire was prepared by baseball historian William J. Weiss and is accessible via ancestry.com. See John Maffei, “New Baseball Collection at Central Library,” San Diego Union-Tribune, February 13, 2014, at https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sports/mlb/sdut-baseball-collection-william-weiss-central-library-2014feb13-htmlstory.html. A respected source that identifies his birth year as 1967 is https://www.baseballamerica.com/players/21233/domingo-Martínez/. Martínez’s Instagram post on August 4, 2021, shows him holding a birthday cake with the writing “Feliz 56 Domingo” on it.

5 Kathleen O’Brien, “Chat Room,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram, September 19, 2002: 2D.

6 Tom Leo, “Martinez Makes the Plays, Hopes It Pays,” Syracuse Herald-Journal, June 30, 1991: C8.

7 Toronto Blue Jays Official Guide 1993 (Toronto: Dan Diamond and Associates, Inc., 1993), 91. The guide misspelled the names of both schools, as “La Lisabela” and “Gustabo Adolfo Beker.” Like the aforementioned questionnaire, it identified his year of birth as 1967.

8 Weiss questionnaire.

9 See https://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/majors/1984-transactions.shtml at August 23. Tom Leo, in “Martinez Makes the Plays, Hopes It Pays,” specified that Martínez was “a non-drafted” signee.

10 “Baldwin’s Triple Lifts GCL Astros,” Sarasota (Florida) Herald-Tribune, June 29, 1985: 5C. “GCL Averages,” Sarasota Herald-Tribune, July 18, 1985: 5C. The Gulf Coast Blue Jays had a record of 5-7 through July 3, according to “GCL Standings,” Bradenton (Florida) Herald, July 4, 1985: D-2. At the time the GCL averages were published, with a lag of about two weeks, Martínez had played in 12 games, according to Peter Giannetti, “Life Below the Chiefs: Looking at the 5 Clubs,” Syracuse Herald-American, July 21, 1985: D7.

11 Tom Leo, “Playing in America,” Syracuse Herald-Journal, June 13, 1993: G1.

12 Matt Michael, “Weight Loss Gains Martinez Shot at Big Leagues,” Syracuse Post-Standard, March 26, 1992: D-1. In fact, he weighed just 185 pounds entering his second pro season, according to “Ventura Gulls: 1986 Roster,” Los Angeles Times, April 9, 1986: part III, page 10.

13 Toronto Blue Jays Official Guide 1993. The 1990 season was the only one in which Martínez was tried as a pitcher. He pitched in three games, and in three innings total. The only run he surrendered was on a homer. Before the 1990 season he played for the Dominican team in the Caribbean World Series, according to “Blue Jays,” The Sporting News, February 19, 1990: 38. After the 1990 season, he played winter ball in the Dominican, for Escogido, according to the Toronto Blue Jays Official Guide 1993.

14 Michael.

15 Michael.

16 “Toronto Blue Jays,” The Sporting News, October 28, 1991: 24. “Jays ‘Last Man’ Ward Signs Deal,” Financial Post (Toronto), February 18, 1992: 39.

17 Michael, D-5.

18 Bill Lankhof, “Bell, Myers Spark Jays’ Celebration,” Financial Post, July 2, 1992: 27.

19 “Jays Divvy Up Loot from World Series,” Whitehorse (Yukon) Star, October 30, 1992: 37. Bob Elliott, “Martinez on List, Morris, Gruber Out in Cold,” Financial Post, November 10, 1992: 43. To put his World Series share in perspective, his baseball-reference.com entry identifies his salary from Toronto in 1993 as $109,000 and credits USA Today as the source.

20 “Sojo Complains of Sore Wrist,” Ottawa (Ontario) Citizen, March 5, 1993: C5. Matt Michael, “Martinez to Try Third,” Syracuse Post-Standard, April 16, 1993: C5.

21 Steve Milton, “Toronto Blue Jays,” The Sporting News, March 14, 1994: 20.

22 Mike Rutsey, “Domingo’s Curse,” Financial Post, March 30, 1994: 43.

23 Kim Rogers, “Nashville Knots Series with Tribe,” Indianapolis News, September 13, 1994: B-1. Jimmy Davy, “Indy Powers Past Sounds to Win Series,” Nashville Tennessean, September 15, 1994: C1.

24 George Rorrer, “Redbirds Forecast Optimistic,” Louisville Courier-Journal, February 4, 1995: B2.

25 George Rorrer, “Redbirds Look to Rebound at Home,” Louisville Courier-Journal, June 27, 1995: D1-2. Mike Grant, “Righetti Stymies Birds on 1-Hitter,” Louisville Courier-Journal, July 2, 1995: D1, D4. Oddly, Martínez appeared in a Louisville Redbirds box score a week after his release, because it documented the completion of a game suspended on June 11 due to rain. That was explained by Randy Weiler in “Redbirds Complete Rout of Sounds,” Louisville Courier-Journal, July 18, 1995: D2.

26 Leonardo Andrade, “Broncos Open Preseason Workouts,” McAllen (Texas) Monitor, February 16, 1996: 2B. As of 2022 baseball-reference.com has no stats for Reynosa in 1996, but in late June Martínez had a .299 batting average and led Reynosa with 14 homers and 73 RBIs, according to Roger Pinckney and Roy Hess, Monitor, June 30, 1996: 1D, 7D.

27 Martínez signed with Baltimore on August 6, 1996, according to “& Etc.,” Knoxville (Tennessee) News-Sentinel, August 7, 1996: D2. The Orioles inked him to a minor-league contract on October 12 and assigned him to Rochester, according to “Sports Etc.,” Orange County Register(Anaheim, California), October 13, 1996: 18. Baltimore purchased his contract from Rochester on November 20, 1996, according to “Transactions,” the Memphis Commercial Appeal, November 21, 1996: D4, but nothing substantial resulted from that decision.

28 “Transactions,” Syracuse Herald-Journal, January 6, 1999: C2. “Pittsburgh Pirates,” Burlington (Vermont) Free Press, February 21, 1999: 7C. “Transactions,” Clearfield (Pennsylvania) Progress, March 12, 1999: 11.

29 “Essential Baseball,” National Post, March 29, 2000: B16. The Cubs, meanwhile, had edged the Seibu Lions, his former team, 6-5.

30 Roch Kubatko, “Facing Long Odds Beats Long Trip for Japan League Vet Martinez,” Baltimore Sun, February 22, 2002: D3. George Richards, “Red-Hot Orioles Win 7th Straight,” Miami Herald, March 15, 2002: 9D. “Dominican Names Pan-Am Team,” Lansing (Michigan) State Journal, April 26, 2003: 4C.

31 His Instagram account, @martinezd48, identifies this as his job in early 2022; similarly, see “Chunichi Signs Four out of The Dominican,” December 11, 2009, at http://www.npbtracker.com/tag/domingo-martinez/.