CLEVELAND — Austin Martin was one of the last players sent down as the Twins made their final roster cuts during spring training. He was in line to have been one of the first players called back up, too.
Unfortunately for Martin, his right hamstring wouldn’t cooperate. Martin first strained the hamstring chasing after a fly ball in center field on April 10. That injury left him out for nearly a month. He returned on May 6, hitting a single in his first at-bat. He didn’t make it around the bases before re-injuring the same leg. His return lasted less than a full inning as Martin once again landed on the injured list with a hamstring strain, not returning again until June 26.
It was a frustrating start to the season for Martin, once a top prospect after being selected fifth overall in the 2020 draft. But now, after the Twins traded much of their roster at the deadline creating space at the major league level, there’s an opportunity for Martin, who debuted last season, to show the Twins what he can do and the utilityman intends to make the most of it.
“That’s all I’ve ever needed was just an opportunity,” Martin said. “All I want to do is just go out and play my game.”
He certainly had been at Triple-A. Martin was hitting .306 with a .420 on-base percentage before his call up on Friday. He had three hits in his first major league game of the season on Friday and singled and scored a run on Sunday in the Twins’ 5-4 win over the Guardians, as he tries to salvage the latter part to his season.
“I knew some good would come out of it. Even in the negative situations, there’s always going to be some positives that come out of it,” Martin said. “As frustrating as it was to try to build up to get back and first game back, first inning back, reinjuring it, it was frustrating for sure but that’s baseball. Sometimes things are going to happen.”
The positives, he said, were that he went back to the team’s complex in Fort Myers, Florida, and was able to work on his game. The tweaks he made during the offseason, he’s been able to implement and now, he feels exactly how he wants to feel in the batter’s box.
Now, it’s about showing it at the major league level as he tries to carve a role out for himself on the Twins moving forward.
“He handles everything comes his way – successes, disappointments, everything because you see a lot in this game – he handles it all well,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “He doesn’t let things get in his way. He just keeps his head down. He works very hard. He demands a lot of himself and he just keeps going.”
Woods Richardson pushed back
The Twins had to shuffle their pitching plans this week to account for the fact that Simeon Woods Richardson is dealing with a stomach issue. The starter, who was scheduled to start the series finale in Cleveland, is now listed as the starting pitcher for Wednesday’s series finale in Detroit against the first-place Tigers.
On Sunday, he was replaced by José Ureña, who was called up on Friday and threw four innings, giving up two runs in the start. The Twins have yet to name a starter for the series opener in Detroit, though they are likely to run some kind of bullpen game.
Briefly
Second baseman Luke Keaschall is very close to rejoining the Twins with his return likely to happen this week in Detroit. Keaschall, one of the team’s top prospects, has been out since April 25 when he was hit by a pitch, fracturing his forearm. In his first seven major league games, Keaschall had provided a spark in the Twins’ lineup, hitting .368 with five stolen bases.
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