New Giants pitching coach Martinez brings well-rounded approach originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — When the Giants and Cleveland Guardians lined up for the national anthem on Wednesday in Goodyear, there were quite a few head nods and waves across the field. On the home side, manager Stephen Vogt stood alongside Craig Albernaz, who became his associate manager after years in San Francisco as the bullpen coach. To Albernaz’s right was Guardians field coordinator Kai Correa, who previously was the bench coach for Gabe Kapler and briefly replaced him at the end of the 2023 MLB season.
The visual was the latest reminder of just how much has changed at Oracle Park. Of the 10 coaches working under manager Bob Melvin, only three served on Kapler’s staff. This season, one of them is taking a huge step forward in his career development.
After four seasons as the organization’s assistant pitching coach, J.P. Martinez was elevated to the top chair in the offseason after Bryan Price stepped away from the game. It was the natural choice for Melvin, but also for president of baseball operations Buster Posey, whose final season as a catcher was Martinez’s first on staff.
Just a few years removed from coaching high school baseball in Louisiana, Martinez in 2021 found himself in pregame meetings led by a future Hall of Fame catcher. His plan originally was to be quiet and listen to Posey, that day’s starter and pitching coach Andrew Bailey go over the game plan, but he quickly found that Posey had a routine. At the end of every pregame planning meeting, he would turn to the young assistant. “J.P., what have you got,” Posey would ask.
“I would always just wait for that moment and make sure the thing I would say is something he could actually use and not be fluff,” Martinez said on Thursday’s “Giants Talk” podcast.
When Posey took over baseball operations, he made it clear that any feelings he might have about a potential coaching move would take a backseat to Melvin’s preferences. For Melvin, the decision to promote Martinez wasn’t a difficult one. When he hired Price, his longtime friend, he felt that perhaps Martinez had been passed over. This round, there was no question.
“It was his time,” Melvin said.
Martinez will bring an interesting blend to the role, one formed through five seasons as a Minnesota Twins minor league coach and four on two very different big league coaching staffs. Kapler’s group tried to reinvent the game at times, but the pitching side was on the cutting edge of the advances that have been made over the last decade, as pitch labs have popped up in ballparks and players have had to learn new approaches and lingo.
Martinez learned under Andrew Bailey and Brian Bannister, and then spent last season with Price, who took a more traditional approach.
“I feel like an old-school guy with a new-school grad degree,” he said. “I got a really good education around a lot of the advanced metrics and pitch design and ball flight stuff with Minnesota, but Minnesota has a pretty rich heritage of player development and pitching and defense. When I came over (from the Twins) I was in a good position to learn from Bails — who had a rich playing career — and Banny, who had a really rich player development background.
“I felt like my exposure to Bryan really just rounded that all out, so I definitely feel more prepared now than I did maybe before last season to be the pitching coach. But I also feel like I have a couple of different personalities I can occupy based on the situation or the need of the player.”
That last element is perhaps the most important part of the job. When Martinez was an assistant, the Giants found that he could just as easily connect with a Camilo Doval as a Logan Webb. This spring, he has formed a quick bond with Justin Verlander, who was part of the same draft class and is the same age.
The Twins took Martinez in the ninth round of the 2004 draft and turned the college starter into a reliever, which proved to be a blessing when he moved on to coaching. Martinez leaned on a four-seam fastball and curveball as a starter and then switched to sinker, slider and cutter as a reliever. In that respect, he is similar to former Giants pitching coach Dave Righetti, who could connect with both starters and relievers after doing both as a professional.
While Righetti spent 16 seasons in the big leagues, Martinez topped out at Triple-A despite posting a 3.36 ERA in the minors. He moved on to coaching high school and summer ball before returning to the Twins to work with rehabbing pitchers and young minor leaguers.
That first taste of coaching professionals came in 2015. A decade later, Martinez finds himself as one of 30 big league pitching coaches. It was his time, and the Giants are hopeful this is just the beginning.
“These (pitchers here) know what he’s all about,” Melvin said. “He knows the analytics, he knows the deliveries, he knows the spins, he knows the grips, he knows all that stuff — and all of these guys knew that before. He has kind of hit the ground running and it’s been pretty seamless.”
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