We look forward to seeing if Austin Martin can translate his on base skills to the big leagues. Will those skills translate without more power? He has a career 105 ISO is the minor leagues which led to major league projections this year in the 80-99 range. That leads to the following questions.

• Is there any reason to hope that his ISO is trending up?
• Can a hitter be a successful every day player with a ISO in the 80-99 range?

Any hope?

There is at least some reason to hope that his ISO is trending up. One narrative is that the Twins messed him up trying to swing his approach and swing towards more power. I think it was the correct direction. Add a little power to his on base skills and defensive versatility and you find a valuable major league player. The adjustments may have helped. His ISO last year in AAA was 142 following a AA ISO of 93 over the previous two seasons. Somehow the narrative of the Twins failure to get more power misses this change in ISO.

Can he be successful?

Last year there were four major league regulars with an ISO below 100 in Tim Anderson, Myles Straw, Maikel Garcia and Andrew Benintendi. All were well be below average hitters on the season. In the 100-120 range you will find some average major league hitters in Steven Kwan, Nico Hoerner, Jeff McNeill and Ty France. Nick Madrigal has been average in this range in previous seasons. McNeill and France were on a career low end of ISO so it seems like Hoerner and Kwan are the best hopes here. Here is a comparison of their last year in the minors. 

Martin has more walks at the cost of more strikeouts and a lower batting average. The window is small and he does need to continue with the upward ISO trend to make up for his lower batting average but there is a window for success with a low ISO.

I should add that you will also find Luis Arraez here with an ISO of 115 last year. I think he is one of a kind but we can hope.