J.D. Martinez, Boston Red Sox DH: ‘I don’t consider myself as a slugger. I consider myself as a hitter that can drive the ball’

J.D. Martinez has averaged 35 homers per 162 games during his major league career. He has slugged .569 in four seasons for the Boston Red Sox and .722 with six homers in 18 games this year.

But don’t call him a home run hitter.

“I’m not a slugger,” Martinez said. “I don’t consider myself as a slugger. I consider myself as a hitter that can drive the ball. I think a lot of guys kind of have that same identity here. A lot of guys believe in that. We don’t have any guys that are just up there swinging for the fences. I think that’s a tough way to produce runs on a consistent basis. You’re pretty much depending on long balls then. To me, I’m a firm believer in it. You’ve got to be a hitter before you’re a slugger.”

Martinez — who embraces launch angle — is a complete hitter, something rare nowadays. He hits for average and reaches base at a high rate. He has a .304 batting average and .379 OBP in his Red Sox career.

He emphasized that hitters aren’t the reason baseball has become largely a two-outcome game (homer or strikeout with walks mixed in).

“I definitely have a different take on all that,” Martinez said. “I think the media and I think a lot of people are very quick to blame launch angle. ‘Oh, the launch angle is ruining baseball.’ But I don’t think that has anything to do with anything. I think the media needs to dive into how the league has changed, how pitchers have pitched differently in the last couple of years.”

Teams are focused on TrackMan data, Martinez pointed out. Front offices focus on spin rate and velocity.

“Every team around the leagues goes, ‘All right, guys. Who spins the ball the most and who throws the hardest?’ And they have a little computer that tells them that. They look at it and it shows them it and they go, ‘Ok, this guy has the best spin and he has the most life. You throw the ball as hard as you can up here and then throw a breaking ball down there.’ And that’s the whole league.

“Everyone is so quick to blame the whole launch angle revolution for everyone up there trying to swing for the fences and drive home runs and nobody is a hitter anymore and putting the ball in play. But what I don’t think people understand is that this is a stuff-over-command league nowadays. It’s guys that throw 100 mph. You see it every day, every team. When I was coming up, there was one guy in the league who threw 100 (mph) and it was (Aroldis) Chapman. Now there’s two guys on every team that throw 100. They go, ‘Here’s my best ball. If you don’t hit it, I’ll walk you or I’ll strike you out.’ So what do you have? Now you have a league that’s now a home run, a strikeout or a walk.”

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