Austin Martin Went Back To Being Austin Martin, and the Results Are Favorable

Austin Martin appears to be coming into his own. Playing in what is shaping up to be his first full major league season, the 27-year-old Minnesota Twins outfielder is slashing .289/.396/.394 with a pair of home runs and a 130 wRC+ over 169 plate appearances. His track record coming into the campaign was somewhat spotty. Hampered by injuries — hamstring and oblique strains among them — he’d played in just 143 big league games, 93 as a rookie in 2024, and 50 last year. Moreover, while his .698 OPS and 101 wRC+ were credible, they fell short of what is expected from a player with his pedigree. Martin was drafted fifth overall in 2020 by the Toronto Blue Jays out of Vanderbilt University.

Uneven performances down on the farm are also part of his backstory. Trying to be something he’s not is one of the reasons why. Acquired by the Twins in the 2021 trade deadline deal that sent José Berríos to Toronto, Martin attempted to hit for more power than what his natural skillset suggests he should. Subsequently returning to his roots has helped fuel his long-awaited breakthrough.

“Being healthy is part of it, but more than anything, I reverted back to the player I was in college,” explained Martin, who was an OBP machine (.474) over his three seasons as a Commodore. “When I got to professional baseball, I started trying to play the numbers game instead of playing the game itself. I got too far away from myself in terms of trying to pull the ball in the air, doing more damage, getting higher [exit] velocities. That’s never been the type of player I am. I’m just a baseball player. I don’t do anything that will jump at you. I’m more of a consistency, play-the-game-the-right-way sort of guy.”

I asked the DeLand, Florida native if the attempts to up his pop were largely org-driven, or more something that he aspired to do on his own.

“It was a bit of both,” Martin told me. “I always want to amplify who I am as a player, always try to improve and get better, and that was the idea we all had. I wouldn’t say that it was just an organization thing. It was more so agreed upon. It just ended up not working out that way.”

Both the Blue Jays and Twins played a role in the ultimately abandoned efforts. Martin explained that his trying to impact the baseball more aggressively was broached while he was in his original organization, then reiterated when he joined his current one. But again, what doesn’t work doesn’t work.

According to Martin’s manager, organizations need to be prudent when it comes to adjustments of such magnitude.

“Sometimes, as an industry, we try to pigeonhole guys into what we think their skillet should be,” said Derek Shelton, who is in his first year at the helm in Minnesota after six in Pittsburgh. “In Austin’s case, going back to doing what he does: control the zone, hit the ball all over and not worry about it, and then play good defense… but too much, we say, “OK, this guy should do that.’ If it’s not part of his skillset, we shouldn’t ask him to do that.”

Shelton’s mention of defense was timely. On the same weekend he spoke those words, Martin made a spectacular over-the-shoulder catch, à la Willie Mays, in the eighth inning of Sunday’s 6-5 Minnesota win at Fenway Park. Largely erasing concerns about his glove, Martin has morphed into a solid defender while seeing time at all three outfield positions.

Back to his bat:

“I was swinging harder, trying to swing earlier,” Martin said of his past attempts to drive the ball to the pull side. “That just put me in a lot of bad spots, a lot of bad counts. I was chasing more and not really feeling like myself in the box.

“After my UCL injury [in 2023], when I was rehabbing it, I had a little break from the game and some time to myself to kind of review everything,” Martin added. “I came to the conclusion that this is my career, and if I’m going to go out, I’m going to go out my way. That type of deal.”

For Martin, returning to the swing mechanics that made him a first-round pick has borne fruit. That doesn’t mean what you see in the batter’s box is an exact replica of the hitter he once was.

“There are subtle differences,” he explained. “When you move a certain way for so long, and then you change that and do it for an extended period of time, trying to revert back to your old swing might not necessarily feel as natural as it did before. The way I move now is a little bit different than it was prior. It’s more so in my setup. I just preset my hip, try to get that out of the way, and simplify my swing as much as possible. I have an extremely short swing, and am basically just trying to hit line drives all over the field.”

Shelton has worked as a hitting coordinator, as well as a hitting coach, in both the minors and the major leagues. I asked if he could give examples of players who have tried to change, only to revery back out of necessity.

“I think it’s more guys that you want to pull the ball, because you think the power is going to come,” Shelton replied. “I can’t give you a specific one, but it is usually in that vein. It’s, ‘All right, we’ve got to get the ball pull side more.’ You do that and end up losing part of your swing. I can tell you that I’ve had guys where we’ve worked on their weakness and it has taken away from their strength. You have to be careful about that. You have to let them go back to their strength.”