September 16: The Jays confirmed this evening that Martinez went unclaimed on release waivers. He’s officially a free agent.
September 15: The Blue Jays released former top infield prospect Orelvis Martinez, according to the MLB.com transaction log. Assuming he clears release waivers, he’ll be a free agent. The Jays had designated Martinez for assignment on Saturday when they needed a 40-man roster spot to activate Alek Manoah from the 60-day injured list in a procedural move.
Martinez was on optional assignment to Triple-A Buffalo and landed on the minor league injured list with an undisclosed injury last week. Injured players cannot be placed on outright waivers. Players on the 40-man roster can’t be traded after the deadline. Once the Jays designated Martinez for assignment, they had no choice but to release him.
Toronto could have placed Martinez on the MLB 60-day injured list rather than designating him for assignment in the first place. That also would have opened a 40-man roster spot but would have required paying him the prorated major league minimum salary for the final two weeks of the regular season. That the Jays preferred to release him rather than pay the roughly $70K to keep him on the IL is a testament to how far his stock has fallen. There’s a good chance they intended to run him through outright waivers at the beginning of the offseason.
The 23-year-old Martinez appeared in one major league game last season. He singled in three at-bats during his MLB debut. He had occupied a 40-man roster spot for the past three years and had otherwise been on optional assignment. He also missed 80 games last season following a failed performance-enhancing drug test. The PED ban was announced all of five days after Martinez received his first major league call in June 2024. He finished that year in Triple-A and has been in Buffalo for the entirety of this season.
Martinez has endured a nightmare season in the minors. He’s batting .176/.288/.348 while striking out at a 28.4% clip through 394 plate appearances. He has taken a lot of walks and connected on 13 home runs, but both his power production and contact rates have backed up relative to last season. Martinez had turned in a far stronger .267/.346/.523 line with 17 homers in 319 trips at the Triple-A level a year ago.
The Jays could look to bring Martinez back on a minor league contract. That is fairly common in situations where a team DFAs and subsequently releases an injured minor leaguer. Martinez will have the ability to look elsewhere in free agency, though, and it’s possible a change of scenery is ideal given the way his career has gone over the past year-plus. His youth and one-time projection as a potential power-hitting second/third baseman will surely intrigue plenty of teams if he’s relegated to a minor league deal going into 2026.
Yeah, but Orelvis’ is jaded with the PED suspension and then inability to hit after returning. Hopefully Alec can make a return to the show.
Do the Cardinals have a good supplier of… substances?
He doesn’t exactly play so good without his spinach.
If you want to talk about Cardinals and peds then they did have McGwire and 50% chance Edmonds took it too
In fairness, in those days, pretty much every team had guys that were juicing.
Not my team. My team is special because I follow them. They never do ANYTHING wrong. Other franchises? Cheaters.
It’s weird how I no longer feel any animosity towards a certain ex-Astro now that he has a .950 OPS for my team.
@Cardinals are good
Orelvis is extremely bad on the field. IIRC he scored a 35 or 40 on the 20/80 for fielding. His super power was his ability to hit the ball hard and far. He can do that anymore.
Welcome to Pittsburgh!
The jays hit alot more in the draft and on their prospects than most, but this does still sting. Hindsight is 20/20, but pre ped The trade value for a top 100 prospect….must have had some interesting offers in trade. His 2024 spring training was pretty awesome, but again, ped’s
Since Atkins and Shapiro took over the jays have a bottom 5 WAR from draft picks. Your first comment could not be further from the truth.
Yes thats a stat
But jays did trade alot of picks at beginning of era for depth and signed a tonne of pitchers.
Now after some years of building depth is getting better
Dusty- if Shapiro and Atkins are using their draft model from Cleveland, they pick a certain type of player. That type of player can’t hit a baseball.
Check your facts “bruh”
Jays have been awful in the draft. On so many levels.
He’s a cheater
Orelvis has left the building
Giving the thumbs up cause you really reached for that one.
Wonder If the Brewers would sign him and turn him into next year’s breakout star of the year for 26
Well this makes me feel a lot better about them releasing Yhoangel Aponte…he was actually producing
i saw him in Dunedin and in Buffalo and the sound from his bat was different. can’t understand why his hitting crashed after PED. his power is natural – the hit tool disappearing is baffling
PED’s don’t just help in the power department. The extra strength will also help a hitter create more bat speed through the zone, and that is why the contact and hard contact metrics both drop at the same time.