Twins prospect Austin Martin has been shut down with a sprained UCL, according to The Athletic’s Aaron Gleeman. It is currently unknown what Martin’s timetable for return looks like. That being said, UCL sprains are common precursors to Tommy John surgery. While that procedure is more serious for pitchers than position players, such a surgery would likely spell the end of Martin’s 2023 season if it were to be deemed necessary.
Martin, 24 later this month, was taken by the Blue Jays as the 5th overall pick in the 2020 draft. Upon being traded to the Twins as part of the Jose Berrios deal, he was a highly regarded prospect, nearly cracking the top 20 of MLB.com’s Top 100 prospects list in 2021 and slashing an above average .270/.414/.382 during his first professional campaign. Since that time, though, Martin missed six weeks of the 2022 season with injury and struggled mightily when he was able to take the field, slashing just .241/.367/.315 in a repeat of the Double-A level last year, good for a below average wRC+ of just 89, though he did steal an impressive 34 bases in 90 Double-A games while being caught just 5 times.
As previously mentioned, the timetable for Martin’s return to action is currently unknown. Regardless of whether Martin’s ultimate prognosis is that severe or something less serious, though, the former top prospect has hit another frustrating roadblock on his path to the big leagues. Even a relatively short absence would force Martin to prove his health on top of returning to form offensively in order to get on the radar for a big league debut sometime this year. Martin is Rule 5 eligible this offseason, meaning the Twins will have to add him to the 40-man roster or risk him being selected by another club in the Rule 5 Draft this December.
As for Minnesota, their remarkable position player depth should allow them to weather this injury relatively painlessly. While it’s certainly unfortunate to potentially lose an upper-minors prospect who could be plugged into the infield or outfield as necessary, particularly with Royce Lewis and Gilberto Celestino already on the shelf, the Twins still figure to have Trevor Larnach, Matt Wallner, and 2022 first round pick Brooks Lee starting the season in the upper levels of their minor league system, and possess a deep bench including Kyle Farmer, Donovan Solano, and Michael A. Taylor.
Nooooooooo. Poor guys been on a nosedive last couple of years. Not good for him
I thought the headline said Astin Martin at first. I was thinking “like a flat tire?”
Too many Bond movies, I guess.
Austin Martin took third at the F1 Bahrain GP today actually. Fernando Alonso was flying.
They need to step up to battle Red Bull because Ferrari just loves being the Colorado Rockies of F1
Do you even watch F1? What a needless and baseless comment. To compare each sport like their not apples and oranges is egregious. Don’t be a sandbag. What the Schumacher F1 Era did and to some extent for the builders/engineers with Mercedes more recently is an anomaly. It is hard and nearly impossible to remain on top forever. The Rockies just suck, and judging by their beer prices have turned themselves more into an event space than a professional organization.
Rule 5
The Orioles could wind up with him still lol
Loltwins
The horror. Twins are falling like Russians on the Eastern Front.
That made me laugh way more than it had the right to lol
Might he still DH or pinch run this spring, season? Or a total and complete shutdown until they know if he’s getting tommy John?
I’m no doctor, but a sprain is torn tissue and maybe it could be treated with a primary repair. If he plays further it would tear more and TJ might be the only option. Again, I’m no doc, and even if I was we don’t have enough details about the extent of his injury.
Yeah, neither do the Twins so you not having enough information is probably pretty logical, haha.
Hopefully, it’s really minor and rest and rehab work for him. Since he’s not a pitcher, the odds are a lot better he can rehab it, but my guess is there will be more information made available after some second opinions are made.
Given rhe number of guys who hit for better power after TJS this could very well be the only way he hits for any sort of power.
If you didn’t click on the link to Martin’s B-Ref page, it’s worth it to see the . . . unusual photo.
Is that a cap on top of a turban? Whatever floats his boat I guess.
The use of a background that’s the same color as the headgear he’s wearing under his cap makes his cap look like it’s floating. Funny effect.
It’s a hair band.
google.com/search?hl=en-US&q=austin+martin+tw…
Man, Photoshop is getting poorer in quality.
It looks lke his hat is floating in midair. It also looks like when does a poor job of adding filters to a picture.
It’s a head cover of some sort, but it still looks super odd the way the picture came out lol
Poor choice of durag color for the photo lol
Maybe he knew about that and was trolling the picture.
“Don’t judge a book by its cover”
-Kindergarten teachers
Really get the feeling that he’s going to be like Nick Senzel.
Right now, he hasn’t even gotten that far yet.
Cue Clepto and his opinion that injured UCLs = longer and more productive careers. He knows this for a fact and has done many studies on the matter. For those who don’t know, he’s a part time surgeon in addition to brilliant commenter on this site.
His photo on baseball reference the best player photo.
Martin has undoubtedly been passed on the depth chart by a number of players at this point, but it sucks to have such a potentially brutal injury when he still had the opportunity to rebuild his stock. Hopefully, a couple months of rest and rehab do the job and he can rebound this season.
This guy had so much hype when he was selected by Toronto but since then he’s had no luck. The baseball gods giveth and taketh away.
And somehow the baseball gods decided to ruin Jose Berrios too.
Low risk, minimal cost.- Rosenthal. However, at age 32, the best thing for him would be to pitch in the minors for 2 months to regain form and confidence.
Wonder how much different the 2020 draft plays out if a full college and high school season is played and scouts and front office personel are able to make full, in person reports after seeing these guys play.