Orelvis Martinez is making it awfully hard to ignore his performance to begin the 2024 season.
The Toronto Blue Jays‘ No. 2 prospect, according to MLB Pipeline, entered Friday night’s game with triple-A Buffalo with a .936 OPS and home runs in two straight games and three of the Bisons’ last four.
But then after two at-bats on Friday, Martinez had made it three straight games and five home runs in five games.
The 22-year-old second baseman ripped two home runs off Columbus Clippers starter Adam Oller, that combined to cover 831 feet on their way out of the ballpark.
The first one came in the top of the first inning, when Martinez smashed a 1-1 fastball, 104.4 m.p.h. off the bat, 397 feet over the wall in left to give Buffalo a 1-0 lead.
Then two innings later, Martinez, having homered in two straight at-bats going back to Thursday night, deposited a 0-1 slurve 434 feet onto the berm in left field, driving in one to retake a 3-2 lead.
The back-to-back blasts lifted his OPS to 1.068 for the season as Toronto’s top position player prospect appears ready to make the jump to MLB.
According to MLB Pipeline, Martinez has above-average power, grading out as a 60 on a 20-80 scale. With the Blue Jays entering their weekend series with the San Diego Padres ranked 23rd in home runs and 22nd in slugging, Martinez’s raw power would likely be a welcome addition to a team that could use some more impact bats in its lineup.
In addition to showing off his pop, Martinez is now hitting .328 in 2024.
Adding his two home runs, Martinez has now hit 17 balls over 100 m.p.h. this season in triple-A, and for comparison, only Bo Bichette and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. have done that more for the Blue Jays so far this year.
