The Athletics have designated outfielder Nick Martini for assignment, per a club announcement. His designation will make 40-man room for just-promoted first baseman/outfielder Seth Brown.
Martini was a seventh-round pick of the Cardinals in 2011 who proved to be a shrewd minor league signing for the Athletics last season. He earned his first major league promotion in the first week of June in 2018 and then proceeded to slash an impressive .296/.397/.414 (129 wRC+) with 1.3 fWAR in 179 plate appearances, though he only hit one home run over that span. Unsurprisingly, the left-handed Martini did just about all of his damage against righty pitchers.
Even though Martini was an easily above-average hitter at the major league level a year ago, he hasn’t been much of a factor in the bigs this season. The 29-year-old collected just 13 PA with the 2019 A’s before they cut him, instead spending almost all of the campaign with their Triple-A affiliate in Las Vegas. Across 329 trips to the plate, Martini has put up a strong .328/432/.482 line in the minors with eight home runs and almost as many walks (49) as strikeouts (51), good for a 129 wRC+ that matches his MLB production from 2018. With two minor league options left, it’s possible someone will claim Martini on waivers.
Really stupid
Shut up, Nick.
Except not at all… martini is a singles hitter through and through and is what he is at this poin… I bet they also think they can pass him through and put him back in Vegas
A singles hitter is a bit of an undervalued asset in today’s MLB imo. It’s nice to have guys who can put the ball in play.
He’s a “singles” hitter who’s only hit in MLB this year is a home run, LOL
Time to lose him but at this point better chance for Fowler to be called up
He’s been shaken, not stirred.
I feel a Bond with that comment.
What a twist. Olive it!
why not just call up Martini?
Doesn’t really fit the roster construction. We don’t need another high OBP guy, we need someone to do damage.
He’s also not likely to keep up that high obp as big league pitchers will challenge him more knowing he’s not punishing their mistakes and that he’s waiting it out and taking a lot of pitches… he’s just a one dimensional singles hitter
“We don’t need another high OBP guy”
“You” have ONE high OBP (Canha), there’s Semien, Grossman, Chapman, Olson and Laureano who are on paper, slightly better than the league average OBP (.323) but still not “high” – Canha is the only OBP guy the A’s have, because the FO no longer cares about OBP and is alllll about SLG. Which is fine, its how they’re winning, but once again you make A’s fans look particularly dumb on here with your factually-incorrect posting/trolling.
Why do you even come here? You don’t have a team in the race, you actually just post on MLBTR to crap on the A’s whenever they’re mentioned.
Baltimore Orioles on line one.
Buzzzzz… no reason for Baltimore to grab him
Says the team that employed Joey Rickard, Stevie Wilkerson, Keon Broxton, Cedric Mullins…all guys Martini is massively better than
Are you kidding with the buzz?
High obp guy who can play in the outfield? The Orioles need all the bodies they can get.
This guy would be a massive upgrade over DJ Stewart.
No way he gets by Detroit or Baltimore.
Every way actually…. a 29 year old singles hitter isn’t exactly a high priority for a total rebuild
Miami would be more likely to grab him.
He’s been on fire this year. May as well give him a shot. He’s better than the other fodder those teams have been rolling out everyday.
SiNgLeS hItTeR
Getting on base is bad now. Cool, cool…
No, it’s not their they’re bad, but when a team is bad they need difference makes, not 29 year olds who hit singles and work counts… if he was good don’t you think the A’s would have used him with alll their outfield injuries? Fact is they replaced him with Robbie grossman despite his hot stretch last year…. he’s fine as the worst player on your roster on a good team, he’s simply not an asset for bad teams
Martini was evidently a popular vice with a’s fans … both of them!
*rimshot*… terrible attempt at a joke btw
Again
To the Orioles he goes
Never thought we’d see the day where the Oakland “Moneyball” A’s stop caring about OBP, but with “typical” A’s high OBP players Beau Taylor and now Martini off the team, the A’s are clearly looking for longballs only…which makes sense in 2019, I guess.
It’s not because of OBP. It’s because they hit the ball into the ground too much and can’t punish other teams’ mistakes.
Neither Taylor or Martini had enough of a sample scale in MLB this year to speak in absolutes about them like that. Their best tool is OBP, and it looks like the A’s would rather have versatility, speed, power and as long as the guys who make more outs also hit homers, they’re going to stay on the team.
Grossman is so weird on that team. I’d rather have seen the A’s DFA him and kept Martini and Fowler instead. Profar and Grossman really have held the team back. Houston goes 1-9 and Oakland doesn’t, they get obsessed with R-L-R-L batting orders and literally bring up based on that and give mediocre players too much rope before cutting ties, while giving other high upside guys no chance to stick – that’s why Oakland will always be also-rans and Houston’s going to destroy them in the playoffs, if the A’s even make it.
It shows how deep the A’s farm system is when player that can make other teams can be DFA. There is about 5 players that the A’s have released in the last 2 years that are on other teams. The A’s core is solid and good except 2B.
When he hit that pinch hit homer at Wrigley field that had to a feel good moment for him. Especially being from crystal lake. I grew up there long before he was even drafted but it had to feel good.
I hope he stays with Oakland I wouldn’t mind going to see him play for the las Vegas 51s(the aviators is a horrible name. )
Aviators is a more fitting name though. Lots, and lots of pilots here. Private, commercial, military, etc.
51s is perfect. As in area 51. It had been the 51s for 20 years. It was previously the stars in 1999. It was the 51s with 6 or 7 affiliates. Now its the A’s and they change the name to the worst possible name ever.
The Aviators have been owned by Hughes (as in Howard Hughes) Aviation since 2013.
Several months before Hughes bought them, the 51’s changed association to the Mets. Hughes Aviation wanted to change to Aviators, Mets didn’t, but the A’s were fine with it.
But sure, blame the A’s for something that’d been six years coming and had nothing to do with them.
It’s still a horrible name.
Dime’s the limit, Martini!
Hope he catches on somewhere, one of a handful of K-Staters in MLB the last few years.
Kansas City on line 3!