Good Fernando Martinez Article

19-year-old phenom Fernando Martinez blazing a trail toward Shea

By ADAM RUBIN
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER

PORT ST. LUCIE - Five months after his 16th birthday, with a seven-figure signing bonus riding on his performance, Fernando Martinez stepped onto Field 7 at the Mets' complex during spring training in 2005, trying to impress the organization's top officials.

He succeeded by spraying line drives to the opposite field, and with strong throws from right field to the third base and the plate, and with a firm handshake that demonstrated to GM Omar Minaya the prospect's strength.

Months later, the Dominican teenager was being introduced at Shea as a Met, having landed a franchise-record signing bonus for an international free agent: $1.3 million.

"I wasn't nervous," Martinez says. "All my life, I said, 'I like New York. I like the Mets. This is my team.' I felt it."

Now, Jesus Fernando Martinez Alvarez is nearing his arrival in Flushing, as a can't-miss, according to people in the know, as a Jose Reyes, the last teenager to get promoted by the Mets to the big leagues.

"We always felt that he was going to advance, that if he stayed healthy, this kid is going to be a major leaguer," says Mets VP Tony Bernazard, who oversees the minors.

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When Minaya, three months into his tenure as GM, signed Pedro Martinez to a $53 million contract on Dec. 16, 2004, critics questioned the wisdom of committing four years to a 30-something pitcher with evidence of shoulder wear. Minaya portrayed the signing differently - as far more than the addition of a top-notch pitcher.

When Minaya was questioned about what Martinez would have left in 2008, the GM pointed to 2010 and 2015, when young Dominicans will mimic their national hero and choose the Mets.

"You know where that kid wants to be today?" Minaya asked at a packed news conference to introduce Martinez. "He wants to be a Met."

Fernando Martinez was the first of that wave, shunning a more lucrative offer from the Padres in order to enlist with the team that had signed his countryman away from the Red Sox.

Still, Minaya pins the failure rate for international signings - even the ones with seven-figure signing bonuses - at more than 80%.

Yet there was always something special about Fernando Martinez.

"I've gone down that road with a lot of guys before, but he stood out because he was really under control," says Sandy Johnson, the Mets' VP for scouting, who watched Martinez work out at the team's Dominican Republic complex even before the Florida tryout. "He had tremendous bat speed. The ball jumps off his bat. He never swung and missed. He was really a mature-type 15½-, 16-year-old kid."

Despite all of Martinez's baseball tools, his maturity caught the attention of the Mets. The day Martinez arrived at camp this spring, he beat Minaya to Tradition Field - and the GM arrived at 6:45 a.m., three full hours before players typically go out to stretch. Three years after first setting foot in the U.S., thanks in part to classes with a SUNY-Binghamton professor last season, Martinez already has a sound command of English. Meanwhile, as the youngest player in the Arizona Fall League two seasons ago and the youngest player in the Double-A Eastern League last season at 18, Martinez has compiled a .276 average, 14 homers and 60 RBI in 551 career minor-league at-bats against more experienced competition.

"A kid like that might be fooling around with (Sony) PSP," says Mako Oliveras, Martinez's manager last season at Double-A Binghamton. "You don't see him. He's got a goal to play hard and to get to the big leagues."

Says Carlos Beltran, who figures to push Martinez at some point from his natural position at center field to right: "He's got a great habit of working. Every day when I go to the weight room, he's always there lifting weights."

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Just last spring, chief operating officer Jeff Wilpon was giddily proclaiming Martinez and Carlos Gomez the Mets' corner outfielders when Citi Field debuts in 2009. Plans change. Last month came the trade with the Twins for Johan Santana, and Gomez, along with pitchers Philip Humber, Kevin Mulvey and Deolis Guerra, were shipped out.

Still, it's hard to not envision Martinez patrolling the quirky right field at the new stadium, with its old-Tiger Stadium-type overhang, next year.

The Mets didn't want to part with Martinez - the highest-rated Dominican product in the sport, according to Baseball America - in the Santana deal, but it turned out to be a non-issue. The Twins were content taking the 22-year-old Gomez, since they needed a center fielder ready to step in for the departed Torii Hunter to open this season.

For now, Bernazard says Martinez is ticketed to open '08 at Binghamton. He'll remain in center field, just as Lastings Milledge and Gomez did until their major-league call-ups.

"You always try to keep the players at the prime positions as long as you can," Bernazard says. "If a guy is capable of playing shortstop, and you're planning to move him, and he's not holding anyone up, you play him at shortstop."

Really, what has slowed Martinez's ascension more than anything are hand injuries. He was limited to 60 games last season because of a broken bone at the base of his right hand that required surgery, an injury that forced him to cancel an appearance in the Futures Game during the All-Star festivities in San Francisco. The season before, a recurring left-thumb injury limited him to 76 games.

"We're looking forward to seeing what he can do with a full year of playing time uninterrupted," Bernazard says.

Says Oliveras: "While I'm talking to you now, I've got goose bumps. The only thing that can get in the middle of his road is injuries."

Mets officials predict the lefty-hitting Martinez, now just 19 and listed at 6-1, 190 pounds, will grow into a 30-plus homer threat. Oliveras describes the shots off Martinez's bat as having backspin because they're hit so hard and squarely. And he flashed a little leather on Friday when made diving catch playing while left field in the Mets' 5-4 loss to the Cardinals.

Martinez's arm should be more than adequate for right field in an era in which rifles such as Dave Parker's and Ellis Valentine's no longer exist.

"Any time a guy, in my experience, is able to hit the ball with authority at that age to the opposite field, it's only a matter of time," says Mets bench coach Jerry Manuel, who tutors the outfielders, about Martinez's power potential.

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When will the call come to promote Martinez? Martinez, in what seemed like an uncharacteristic boast, predicted upon his arrival at camp that it would be this year, although Oliveras says the prospect was misunderstood.

"I grabbed him and said, 'Hey, watch out with whatever you say. The words will come back to haunt you,'" Oliveras says. "He said, 'I didn't mean that. What I said was I was going to work hard to see if I can get there.'"

Bernazard says he can't offer a date. If the Mets are clicking, with Moises Alou remaining healthy and Ryan Church meeting expectations, there may not be a need.

"He's going to come soon," Bernazard says. "If he stays healthy, this year we might see him at the end of the season. It depends on the needs of the team and who's doing well."

It is worth noting that the spring before Beltran turned 19, he had logged only 180 at-bats in the minors - all at the rookie level. So Martinez is ahead of the curve.

It was, after all, only three years ago that Martinez was trying out for the Mets, at an age many U.S. students are sophomores in high school. Just Friday, Fernando Martinez was playing the kid-in-the-candy-store role, excitedly getting a ball autographed by Pedro.

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