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After the 2025 trade deadline, the Twins had spots to fill. Pitching got the most attention, but the Twins also needed to fill the holes left by Carlos Correa, Harrison Bader, Willi Castro, and Ty France. One of the beneficiaries of those vacancies was Austin Martin, and he’s really the only hitter to have successfully seized that opportunity. Since coming up at the beginning of August, he's batted .294/.385/.390 across 136 plate appearances, with solid defense in left field.
It wasn’t a foregone conclusion that Martin would see success. He struggled in 93 games in 2024, both offensively (his .670 OPS was 10% below average) and defensively. There wasn’t even a clear path to playing time this year (despite the departures of Bader and Castro), given the presence of Byron Buxton, Matt Wallner, Trevor Larnach, Alan Roden, James Outman, and DaShawn Keirsey Jr. in the Twins outfield picture. But Martin parlayed his .319/.431/.398 line at Triple-A St. Paul into a call-up, and he hasn’t looked back.
So, how does his unexpected emergence change things going forward?
Well, first, his presence adds yet another name to the list of corner outfield options that seems to get longer by the day. The aforementioned Wallner, Larnach, Roden, and Outman (and I suppose Keirsey and Carson McCusker, should they survive a winter's worth of roster pruning) will all vie for time in right or left field next year. Other options like Walker Jenkins, Emmanuel Rodriguez, and Gabriel Gonzalez all await their chance at. Also, Kody Clemens can play out there, if that excites you—and Luke Keaschall might have to play out there, whether that excites you or not.
It’s unclear how much Martin’s play will change the Twins’ plans on any of those names right now. Few would have been surprised if Larnach were traded (or released) this offseason, even before Martin's hot stretch. Outman, Keirsey, and McCusker all seemed to be in line for more minor roles, if they’re even in the organization, and Martin isn’t going to divert any top prospects from the track they’re already on.
But it does give the Twins breathing room. Roden and the prospects, for instance, aren’t going to be thrust into roles the team doesn’t feel that they’re ready for just to fill space. Martin provides one line of protection there. It’s doubtful that the Twins feel any need to add a corner outfielder in free agency for that buffer—if they ever did at all.
Beyond just being a warm, capable body in the corners, Martin fills another couple of roles. He’s right-handed, unlike any of the names listed above other than Buxton and McCusker. He makes a nice platoon partner with whichever lefty outfielder you prefer in left field, if you aren’t convinced that Martin can handle a full-time gig. That underscores a lesser need to acquire another outfielder this offseason—a right-handed swinger, in this case.
Martin can also cover center field, if needed. It’s not pretty, but it’s likely better than what the team could get from Roden (or Clemens, who did play out there once this season), especially if the team elects to move on from Outman and Keirsey. Even if the Twins open the season with Martin covering the spot on Buxton’s days off, hopefully, Jenkins and Rodriguez would be able to step into the backup role before too much of the season elapses. It’s another fringe role that Martin can fill without the team spending any precious payroll space. He’s also an emergency infielder, which doesn’t really make that much difference, but I think we’re contractually obligated to say that anytime Martin’s name comes up.
Given the rest of the depth and options, though, it seems pretty low-risk to simply roll with Martin penciled into an everyday role (or something approximating it). The weird thing about his emergence is that it doesn’t have an enormous effect on the rest of the plans. Almost all personnel decisions—outside of perhaps bringing in a free agent righty—will proceed as planned, without regard to Martin’s play this season. They’re more dependent on the team’s evaluation of those other players and their individual performances.
Even if Martin is the team’s Opening Day left fielder in 2025, next season probably isn’t about him. It’s about Wallner having a bounce-back or Jenkins or Rodriguez settling into a role. Martin’s ceiling isn’t astronomical. He is a potentially good (but not elite) defender at a bottom-of-the-defensive-spectrum position whose offensive viability is predicated on his ability to flirt with a .400 on-base percentage with little-to-no power.
He can still carve out a big-league career. He can still provide value on a good team. He might be a viable, league-average regular, if the team gives him a full season to play most days. And even if he’s squeezed out of the “starting role,” he can carve out a niche within a team—even one stocked with corner outfielders. Starting against lefties (and some righties) and pinch-hitting in situations in which the team needs a baserunner, and pinch-running when the team needs a stolen base—that’s a viable career.
Martin, who has just one minor league option year after this season and will be 27 next year, might not have been in line for even this much of a big-league future if he didn’t make the most of his opportunity this summer. Outside of having one more reason to not go get a veteran righty outfielder, Martin provides another option to fill in the gaps of a roster that has many, many question marks, and it’s great to see him making the most of it.
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