Harold Reynolds: Mariners legend Edgar Martinez gets ‘ultimate validation’ with HOF induction

Jan 21, 2019, 8:55 PM | Updated: Jan 22, 2019, 3:27 pm

Legendary former Mariners DH Edgar Martinez made the Hall of Fame Tuesday. (AP)

(AP)

Seattle Sports

Tuesday marked the end of a 10-year journey for Edgar Martinez and Mariners fans. Martinez finally gained induction to the Baseball Hall of Fame when voting for the class of 2019 was revealed Tuesday afternoon.

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For the first time since Martinez was added to the annual Hall of Fame ballot in 2010, we went into the Hall of Fame announcement expecting Martinez to reach the needed 75 percent for induction. As of Monday night, his name had been included on 90 percent of the 217 ballots (a little over half of all submitted ballots) to have been made public, per Ryan Thibodaux’s Hall of Fame tracker. That included an added 25 voters known to not have voted for Martinez when he received 70.4 percent in 2018, which at the time was only 20 votes short of making the cut.

A former Mariners teammate of Martinez’s, MLB Network analyst Harold Reynolds, joined 710 ESPN Seattle’s Danny, Dave and Moore on Monday (full interview here) and shared how confident he was at the time in the seven-time All-Star and two-time American League batting champ’s chances to become a Hall of Famer in his last year on the ballot.

“I’m excited. I’m confident this year. Last year I was a little nervous, the numbers weren’t trending real great, you thought he had a shot but it was more like a wing and a prayer,” Reynolds said. “This year I feel like he’s in already, so it’s gonna be an exciting day. I’m looking forward to it.”

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Martinez made a significant jump from the 36.2 percent he garnered in his Hall of Fame voting debut in 2010. Obviously his career numbers didn’t change in the nine years since, so what has changed in that time for the player whose name is on the annual award given to the AL’s best designated hitter? Reynolds said voters are finally warming up to the idea that a player who spent the majority of his career as a DH can be worthy of joining the Hall.

“There’s been a big push for that the last 10 years, for people to understand it’s a position – since the 70s – so quit penalizing guys,” Reynolds said. “Edgar’s one of the best DHs of all-time, and I think that’s why it’s happening now and maybe not five years ago.”

Martinez has always been a quiet and reserved person, and he has been quite graceful in dealing with the disappointment of missing out on induction nine times before. Reynolds is glad that No. 11 will finally get the recognition he deserves.

“He is very quiet, very shy, and truly humble,” Reynolds said of Martinez. “But I think he understands baseball history and where this puts him. It’s hard to know that you’re good, you hope that somebody else validates that, because that’s the position that Hall of Famers are put in.

“This will be the ultimate validation for Edgar, and he’s deservedly so heading to Cooperstown.”