Baseball America Top 10 Blue Jays Prospects: No. 6, INF Orelvis Martinez

With the latest Baseball America prospect rankings out now, it's time for us to dive into the Toronto Blue Jays' top-ten prospects (subscription required).

For those who don't subscribe to BA, you should. Either way, we have you covered.

We've already broken down No. 10 prospect Nate Pearson, No. 9 Hayden Juenger, No. 8 Cade Doughty and No. 7 Tucker Toman.

Now, we turn our attention the sixth best prospect in the Jays' system, Orelvis Martinez.

Martinez, 21, signed with the Blue Jays in 2018 as an international free agent. He received a $3.5M signing bonus which is still the second highest ever given out by the Jays behind Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

His first ever entrance into the top-ten prospect rankings on Baseball America came in the 2020 preseason rankings, when he was ranked sixth and remained there in 2021 as well.

The hype for Martinez was real entering 2022. He was fresh off of an insanely impressive performance as a 19-year-old in which he hit 26 doubles, 28 home runs with 87 RBI and a good-but-not-great .261 batting average. He was on the fast path to stardom.

He entered the 2022 season ranked all the way up to No. 3 on the BA prospect list. On the field, Martinez made it into 100+ games for the first time as a professional. Both his strengths and weaknesses came to the forefront during the season.

Now that all is said and done on the 2022 campaign, Martinez finished the year with 15 doubles and a whopping 30 home runs to go along with 76 RBI. A power-hitting machine, he also began to really struggle with strikeouts for the first time as a professional, going down on K's 140 times while only walking 40 times. He finished the season with the sixth-lowest batting average in the Eastern League.

On defense, he is a shortstop by trade but appears to be a long-term third basemen due to his lack of range but powerful throwing arm.

Baseball America says that Martinez is a talented but enigmatic player. He "requires a lot of polish" and "will likely repeat Double-A in 2023", hardly a glowing review for someone who was supposed to be the real deal.

On BA's 80-grade scouting scale, Martinez's line reads as follows:

Hitting: 30

Power: 60

Run: 45

Field: 45

Arm: 60