Blue Jays: Austin Martin starting to flash potential with first pro home run

The same controlled, sleek swing that Austin Martin used to hit his first professional home run on Thursday will one day look good in a Blue Jays uniform.

The Toronto Blue Jays front office saw a couple of things in Austin Martin that made them excited when the Vanderbilt star slipped to the fifth pick in last June’s draft: his quick bat, his eye for the strike zone, and his versatility to play around the field.

Martin, just 22 games into his pro career, is beginning to show those hopes weren’t misplaced. His best moment came on Thursday, when the Blue Jays No. 2 ranked prospect hit his first professional home run in Double-A New Hampshire’s 9-3 loss to Binghamton at Delta Dental Stadium.

Martin showed off the talent that made scouts proclaim him the best overall hitter in the 2020 draft class. After falling behind 1-2 against Mets’ left-handed prospect Josh Walker, Martin fouled off a pitch and looked at two more miss the outside corner for balls. Now facing a 3-2 count, Walker came back with a fastball that Martin, using his smooth swing that makes scout’s mouths water, sent over the wall in left field.

The Blue Jays are lucky to have a prospect of his calibre in their system. Martin was ranked second by MLB Pipeline going into the draft. The Baltimore Orioles had a chance to grab him at No. 2 but instead selected another SEC hitter, Heston Kjerstad from Arkansas, amid concerns that Martin would attract too high of a signing bonus. Kjerstad signed for $5.2 million; Martin, after being picked by Toronto, went for $7 million.

He’s still just a year removed from college, but Martin’s selection by the Blue Jays may turn out to be the heist of, maybe not the century, but certainly of the 2020 draft. He started his pro career batting .160 in his first seven games. Over his last 15 games, though, Martin is batting .333 with a .866 OPS. After his first-inning home run on Thursday, he added a single in the ninth for his fifth multi-hit game in the last three weeks. He’s also showing off an eye at the plate that belies his relative inexperience at the pro level, striking out only four times in his last 25 plate appearances.

In the field, Martin is making sure he can be of best use to the Blue Jays organization as he rises through the minor league ranks. He started in centre field on Thursday, the fifth straight game he’s been in the outfielder. He’s also played 10 games at shortstop, a position he only played twice in college.

At Vanderbilt, Martin hit .377 with a 1.168 OPS in 16 games during the shortened 2020 season. As a sophomore in 2019, he led the SEC in batting average, on-base percentage, and setting a Vanderbilt program record in runs scored. The Blue Jays and the rest of the clubs with picks at the top of last year’s draft knew all this beforehand.

Their loss is quickly turning into the Blue Jays gain. Martin was already ranked as the 17th-best prospect in the league. Now he’s getting hot and flashing all that enormous potential.