Martinez out as Blue Jays hitting coach
Published
TORONTO — Coming off a season that saw the Toronto Blue Jays fail to meet expectations once again offensively, the club has parted ways with hitting coach Guillermo Martinez, according to sources.
Martinez, who will turn 40 later this week, spent six seasons as the team’s hitting coach.
The results have been mixed the last couple of seasons, especially after the front office decided the lineup needed a makeover prior to the 2023 campaign.
After finishing top five in runs scored in both 2021 and 2022 with deep and powerful lineups that could score runs in bunches and hit the ball out of the ballpark, the Jays fell to 4.6 runs per game in 2023 — good for a middle of the pack offence sitting 15th in baseball — before falling even further this year.
This season, the Jays dropped to 23rd in the league in runs scored, averaging just 4.1 runs per game, continuing a concerning downward trend for the club’s bats over the past three seasons.
Last year at this time, the Jays stayed the course with their coaching staff, deciding to role shift Don Mattingly into his offensive coordinator gig, while also adding Matt Hague as an assistant on the hitting side.
After a failed pursuit of Shohei Ohtani and a winter of running things back with mostly the same lineup, the coaching shuffle did not work.
This time around, the front office decided change was needed and Martinez was the obvious one to take the fall in order to have a new voice in hitters’ ears next season.
Privately, many players remained supportive of Martinez’s work even when the club was struggling to score runs, but the disappearing power was a concern throughout the organization.
The roster and personnel clearly weren’t good enough, while career worst seasons from stars Bo Bichette and George Springer played a huge role in how things transpired this summer.
Two seasons ago, that pair combined to be worth 8.9 fWAR.
This season, that figure was just 1.5 Wins Above Replacement.
Even an MVP-level season from Vladimir Guerrero Jr. couldn’t offset the down years and injuries elsewhere in the lineup.
Jays brass plans to address the media at their season-ending press conference on Wednesday morning.
It is not yet known if they will make any other coaching changes this offseason.