Hall of Fame pitchers come to defense of Edgar Martinez’s bid

This week featured a landmark for the Seattle Mariners organization, with former pitcher Randy Johnson being elected to the 2015 class of the Baseball Hall of Fame. But beneath the joy of Johnson’s honor was disappointment for another Mariner legend.

In his fifth year of eligibility for the Hall of Fame, Edgar Martinez saw his support drop by over 10 points to just 25.2 percent from voters. It’s a pretty crushing blow for Martinez, the Mariners and their fan base, as he’s still miles away from the needed 75 percent to get to Cooperstown with just five years of eligibility left.

While the voters from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America have cooled on Martinez’s candidacy, he’s gaining support elsewhere: Hall of Fame pitchers from his era.

Johnson took time out of his own press conference Tuesday to back his former teammate, a seven-time All-Star and the man whose name bears the trophy given out each year to the best designated hitter in baseball.

“I’ve faced a lot of Hall of Fame hitters, and my gosh, Edgar is the best hitter that I ever saw,” Johnson said. “The first person on my ballot who would get my vote is Edgar.”

Former players don’t get to vote for the Hall of Fame, of course. But if they did, Johnson wouldn’t be the only one to pencil in Martinez’s name. There’s also Mariano Rivera, the retired Yankees closer and a show-in for the Hall of Fame, who has said before that Martinez was the toughest batter he ever faced. Pedro Martinez, who is going into the Hall with Johnson this year, said the same thing on the MLB Network earlier this week.

It’s those testimonials that had MLB Network host Greg Amsinger coming to Martinez’s defense in an interview with 710 ESPN Seattle’s “Bob and Groz” on Wednesday.

“Maybe the writers dominated Edgar Martinez when they faced him,” Amsinger joked. “But how many Hall of Fame pitchers does it take for them to open their eyes and go, ‘OK, one of the greatest hitters ever, let’s put him in the Hall’?”

The road to Cooperstown is indeed a rocky one for Martinez, and Amsinger said he doesn’t think there will be enough support to get him there before his name leaves the ballot after 2020. But that doesn’t mean it’s time to completely give up hope that Martinez will one day get into the Hall.

“It’s all about the conversation. Something needs to stir the pot for this guy, and I think it takes a Randy Johnson to come out and say what he said, it takes a Pedro Martinez to come out and say what he said,” Amsinger said. “We need to talk about it more.”

Martinez has the numbers to gain entry – for his career he had a slash line of .312/.418/.515 with 2,247 hits, 514 doubles, 309 home runs, 1,261 RBIs and 1,219 runs scored. What has hurt him is that he played designated hitter for the majority of his career, which many deem makes him less worthy than a player who played in the field. But then again the Hall has welcomed in Frank Thomas and Paul Molitor in recent years, both players that spent prolonged periods of their careers at DH.

“We’ve already got Frank Thomas and Paul Molitor in the Hall of the Fame. Why isn’t Edgar Martinez getting more attention?” Amsinger said.

Besides the fact that Martinez wouldn’t be the first player who spent the prime of his career playing DH in the Hall of Fame, there’s also the argument that the DH position is more valuable than voters are giving it credit. After all, Martinez finished with a career WAR of 68.3, tying him for 75th all-time among position players even though the statistic has a defensive component.

“This whole DH thing is not as easy as it sounds. There are guys that just simply don’t like being a DH,” Amsinger said. “To just sit and wait and be that effective, there’s an art to it, and he was one of the greatest to ever do it.

“Hitting is much more important to baseball than fielding. It just is, and he’s one of the best to do it from the right side.”