Slugging Blue Jays prospect is knocking on the door for big league promotion 

With the Toronto Blue Jays constantly looking for a power bat to inject into their lineup for the past couple of seasons, they may no longer need to worry about that anymore. That is because they have a prolific homegrown one that appears all about ready to make their MLB debut very soon. That special player is Jays Journal No. 3 prospect Orelvis Martinez.

After enduring a whirlwind 2023 season that saw him go from being an all-power, no-discipline hitter to a well-rounded, productive contact hitter in the end, Martinez is back and has been even better so far in 2024. Despite a subpar performance during spring training with the Jays, he has been tearing up minor league pitching since returning to start the year with the Triple-A Buffalo Bisons.

In just 16 games to date, Martinez has batted a stellar .317 with a 1.035 OPS, along with 17 runs scored, 7 doubles, 5 home runs and 14 RBI. More importantly, he has put his potent power on full display recently with this mammoth 469-feet grand slam on Wednesday against the Columbus Clippers.

For good measure, Martinez would continue his long ball onslaught with another home run on Thursday and another two on Friday.

Just for comparison, no Blue Jays currently have scored more than 12 runs (Daulton Varsho), hit more than 4 home runs (Varsho), or drove in more than 11 runs (Justin Turner) after 20 regular season games.

Despite playing primarily as a shortstop or third baseman for much of his professional baseball career, Martinez has expanded his position flexibility by seeing 26 games of action at second base last year and for almost all his starts this year with Buffalo. As a result, if the Jays have a dire need for help at either third base or second base (as Bo Bichette isn’t going to give up his shortstop position any time soon), Martinez would become a strong internal option that they can consider going forward. His only main flaw right now though is the fact that he has committed 5 errors in just 13 starts at second base this year, so he will need to clean up his defense a little. But there’s no question that the great value that he can provide with his bat can hopefully offset some of his defensive deficiencies.

With the torrid rate that Martinez has been hitting as of late, the Jays may have no choice with the slugging 22-year-old than to finally give him his well-earned promotion to the big leagues. He can easily replace Daniel Vogelbach on the roster, as Vogelbach had seen limited action and provided minimal production so far this season.