Mariners’ signing of Martinez changed a franchise

“People talk about his bat, but he had great hands,” Martinez told the King County Journal. “I thought he’d be a good second baseman. He’s proved everybody wrong. He became a great hitter.”

But it almost didn’t happen.

Marty Martinez offered Edgar a $4,000 signing bonus, but Edgar was holding out for another thousand dollars. That’s when Carmelo Martinez, Edgar’s cousin who would debut in the big leagues a few months later, intervened.

“If I didn’t take that offer, I’d be like most people in Puerto Rico, a working man doing eight-hour shifts,” Martinez said as he wrapped up his Hall of Fame career in 2004. “It’s like 360 degrees for me to go from having expectations of being a family man with a regular job to just being in the situation that I’m in right now.”

On Dec. 19, 1982, Martinez signed with the Mariners. To that point, the franchise had played in six big league seasons and never won more than 76 games in a year. Martinez worked his way through the team’s minor league system over the next few years, debuting with Seattle as a third baseman in 1987.

Over 18 big league seasons – all with the Mariners – Martinez hit .312 with a .418 on-base percentage and .515 slugging percentage, retiring as one of only six batters in history with at least a .300 batting average, .400 on-base percentage, .500 slugging percentage, 500 doubles and 300 homers. A seven-time All-Star, Martinez helped turn the Mariners into a powerhouse. His walk-off, two-run double in the 11th inning of Game 5 of the 1995 ALDS vs. the Yankees gave Seattle its first postseason series win.

Many credit that hit as a turning point that kept the Mariners in Seattle.

“Eighteen years in Seattle. That’s loyalty, folks,” teammate Jay Buhner told the fans at Seattle’s Safeco Field on Oct. 3, 2004, when Martinez was honored for his career. “He could have gone anywhere he wanted. But he decided to stay right here and keep Seattle his home.

“Something tells me he’s going to be giving another speech, this time in New York, in Cooperstown.”

Buhner proved prophetic when Martinez was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2019.

Craig Muder is the director of communications for the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum