Orelvis Martinez's Dominican Winter League performance brings questions of 2025 role once again

Baseball is truly an every month sport. As Major League Baseball is wrapping up its marathon regular season, the action is shifting to warmer climes and some Blue Jays have already flocked south to participate in the action. The Dominican Winter League season has begun and it's a great experience since fans and teams really take it seriously down there.

Remember Orelvis Martinez? Jays Journal's No. 2 prospect garnered a ton of hype and the 2024 returns seemed very promising. A career .265 hitter at AAA, Martinez slashed .267/.346/.523 with 17 home runs in 74 games prior to his promotion. Martinez actually made it into one game for Toronto in June, a 7-1 loss to the Cleveland Guardians in the midst of the seven game losing streak that may have forever sunk the season. In Northeast Ohio, Martinez struck out in his first at-bat, singled in the next one, before finally grounding out in his last plate appearance.

Then came the unfortunate turn of events. Nearly 36 hours later it became clear Orelvis would have bigger problems on his hands. Martinez became the latest player to be popped by MLB for PED's, a crushing development for one of the Jays' hottest prospects. He served the 80-game suspension and is now playing for Tigres del Licey in the Dominican Winter Leagues. Recently, Martinez made it count with a loud home run on the first pitch of the at-bat, notching his first career home run in the Winter Leagues. It is extremely early, but the young slugger has three walks and five strikeouts in 13 plate appearances.

Maybe 2025 will be the year Canadian baseball fans can finally lay their eyes on this prized prospect. Jays Journal Eric Treuden made the poignant observation about how costly this suspension for Martinez truly was, especially given the trade deadline selloff Toronto engaged in. Gone was Justin Turner and Isiah-Kiner Falefa, his only real obstacles to playing time in Canada. Bo Bichette plodded through his worst season as a pro. Martinez was forced to watch all of this from the sidelines as his development stalled.

Going forward, the Jays infield has more bodies than seats, so the opportunity will once again present itself. It will be incumbent on Martinez to have more performances like these to further cement his status heading into the spring. His initial explanation for the banned substances raised eyebrows among some and Martinez needs to learn from this unfortunate experience. The takeaway is to tell the truth because the facts always come out. Maybe 2025 will be the year fans start seeing the big guy at the top level for an extended period.