Miami Marlins Prospects: Edgar Martinez 2019 Season in Review

Edgar De Jesus Martinez is a 6’1″, 170 lb. right-handed starting pitcher out of Bajos de Haina in the Dominican Republic.

Born on July 13th, 1997, Edgar Martinez was signed by the Miami Marlins as a free agent on July 20th, 2016 at the age of 20. He got his start in the Marlins farm system with the Dominican Summer League in 2016 and in 5 appearances went 16 innings recording 12 punchouts and gave up 8 earned runs. Not quite the statistics you would hope to see, but in the DSL it’s more about pitchers learning how to get a good command on their pitches so the stats aren’t necessarily important.

In 2017 Edgar split time between the Gulf Coast League and the DSL, between the two leagues he sported a 1-1 record, a 7.52 ERA and in 20.1 innings had 15 strikeouts. After 2017 the trainers felt like Martinez had progressed well over his first 2 seasons and decided that in 2018 it would be time to let Edgar get some real work in. Marlin Maniac profiled Martinez in last season’s series as well, here.

In 2018 Edgar pitched a new career high 44 innings and struggled mightily at times. In those 44 innings Edgar had a 0-4 record, 8.18 ERA and 39 strikeouts. Once again, these stats might strike you as not very good but in the GCL and DSL it’s not about the numbers. In the GCL and DSL it’s about training both pitchers and batters the fundamentals of the game and the little things you need to do to excel as a professional.

With that being said, in 2018 Edgar showed his coaches and the Miami Marlins scouts enough where they felt he was in line to not just stay with the organization but get a promotion to Class A- Batavia. One of the main reasons for this promotion was that Edgar had really started to throw a nice slider in the GCL towards the end of the 2018 season.

In 2019 with the Batavia Muckdogs, Edgar had a career year. In 13 starts Edgar went 4-4 with a 2.50 ERA and also boasted a 22-62 walk to strikeout ratio. But it wasn’t just the numbers that were good for Edgar. In Batavia he was known by the coaching staff and the front office as one of the nicest guys in the clubhouse. Edgar would talk to anyone he came in contact with and seemed to have a real joy for playing the game. Out of all the Dominican players in Batavia, Edgar took advantage of the offered English classes the most and by the end of the year you could tell he made great strides with the language.

But back to his baseball skills. When on the mound Edgar seemed very comfortable in 2019, he showed a smooth windup and a fluent release. Edgar would dominate at times with just his fastball and slider giving hitters in the New York Penn League all sorts of problems. Edgar saved his most impressive performance for Batavia’s most important game in nearly a decade.

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In the last game of the regular season Edgar got the start for Batavia in a game that if they won they’d go to the playoffs, if they lost the season was over. Edgar went 6 innings giving up just 2 hits and had 6 K’s. On the mound he looked the best he had all year. Edgar had impeccable command on the breaking ball and was throwing his fastball at a season high 94 MPH. After the game Edgar said “I just wanted to help my team make the playoff” and continued “I felt great today and am happy coach put me in a spot to succeed”.

In 2020 expect Edgar to get a promotion of some kind, whether that be to Class A Clinton or Class A+ Jupiter is for the Marlins to decide. But Edgar Martinez is a pitching prospect who has made great strides in each of his first 4 years in the minor leagues and if he can continue to trend upwards to way he has, he will certainly have a chance to make the Marlins roster around 2022.

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Next. Anthony Maldonado's 2019 Season Review. dark

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