Unowned
Justin Martinez, P
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Scouting report
There's no change here, as Martinez looked the same during 2020 instructs as he did in 2019: During the spring of 2019, there was backfield gossip that the D-backs had a hard-throwing righty in the DSL who we might see in Arizona before the summer was through. On the day before his 18th birthday, Martinez threw an inning of AZL ball and bumped 98 on the Chase Field radar gun. Perhaps more surprising than the velocity, which we had been primed to see, was how well Martinez executed his breaking ball over his next couple of outings. It's only an average tweener breaking ball right now, but he consistently located it down and away from righties, enticing them to flail at it as it disappeared in the dirt. I saw some average changeups, as well. His fastball control is certainly raw, and while Martinez has a strong, projectable frame, his arm action is somewhat odd, with less external rotation going on than you see with most elite velo guys. The D-backs need to work on getting Martinez behind the baseball so his fastball doesn't have cut action (it's not enough cut to be impactful, it's just running into barrels, as you can see on our high speed video of Martinez) and instead has ride. That should come with time. Were Martinez draft-eligible, he'd go somewhere in the second round. (Fall Instructional League)