Julio Pablo Martínez Sánchez (born March 21, 1996) is a Cuban

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in baseball league, leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Mod ...

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to cat ...

in the

Atlanta Braves The Atlanta Braves are an American professional baseball team based in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The Braves compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League East, East division. The Braves ...

organization. He has previously played in

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

(MLB) for the Texas Rangers.

Career

Cuban career

Martínez began his professional career in the Cuban National Series from 2012 through 2017, playing for Guantánamo,

Isla de la Juventud Isla de la Juventud (; en, Isle of Youth) is the second-largest Cuban island (after Cuba's mainland) and the seventh-largest island in the West Indies (after mainland Cuba itself, Hispaniola, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Trinidad, and Andros Islan ...

, and

Camagüey Camagüey () is a city and municipality in central Cuba and is the nation's third-largest city with more than 321,000 inhabitants. It is the capital of the Camagüey Province. It was founded as Santa María del Puerto del Príncipe in 1514, by S ...

. In 2016, Martínez played for the

Cuba national baseball team The Cuba national baseball team (Spanish: ''Selección de béisbol de Cuba'') represents Cuba at regional and international levels. The team is made up from the most professional players from the Cuban national baseball system. Cuba has been des ...

when they played 20 games in the

Can-Am League The Canadian American Association of Professional Baseball, commonly known as the Can-Am League, was a professional, independent baseball league with teams in the Northeast United States and Eastern Canada, founded in 2005 as a reorganization of ...

. He played for the Trois-Rivières Aigles in the Can-Am League in 2017. In November 2017, Martínez defected from

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

Texas Rangers

Martínez signed with the Texas Rangers as an international free agent in March 2018. He made his professional debut that year with the DSL Rangers of the Rookie-level Dominican Summer League, and was promoted to the

Spokane Indians The Spokane Indians are a Minor League Baseball team located in Spokane Valley, the city immediately east of Spokane, Washington, in the Pacific Northwest. The Indians are members of the High-A Northwest League (NWL) as an affiliate of the Color ...

of the Low–A Northwest League after nine games in the DSL in which he batted .409. In 60 games for Spokane he batted .266 with nine home runs, 24 RBIs, and 13 stolen bases. After the 2018 regular season, Martínez played for the Surprise Saguaros of the Arizona Fall League. On October 22, 2018, Martínez hit for the Cycle, going 4–4 with a walk. Martínez was ranked as the #78 overall prospect in baseball by

Baseball Prospectus Baseball Prospectus (BP) is an organization that publishes a website, BaseballProspectus.com, devoted to the sabermetric analysis of baseball. BP has a staff of regular columnists and provides advanced statistics as well as player and team perf ...

in their preseason 2019 Top 101 list. Martínez was also ranked as the #88 overall prospect in baseball by MLB Pipeline in their preseason 2019 Top 100 list. Martínez was assigned to the Hickory Crawdads of the Single–A

South Atlantic League The South Atlantic League, often informally called the Sally League, is a Minor League Baseball league with teams predominantly in states along the Atlantic coast of the United States from New York to Georgia. A Class A league for most of its ...

to open the 2019 season. He was promoted to the Down East Wood Ducks of the High–A

Carolina League The Carolina League is a Minor League Baseball league which has operated along the Atlantic Coast of the United States since 1945. Having been classified at various levels throughout its existence, it operated at Class A-Advanced from 1990 unti ...

on April 17, after hitting .250 with 1 home run and 5 RBI. With Down East, he hit .248/.319/.423/.741 with 14 home runs and 58 RBI over 113 games. Martínez did not play in 2020 due to the cancellation of the Minor League Baseball season because of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. He spent the 2021 season with the

Frisco RoughRiders The Frisco RoughRiders (often shortened to 'Riders) are a Minor League Baseball team of the Texas League and the Double-A (baseball), Double-A affiliate of the Texas Rangers (baseball), Texas Rangers. They are located in Frisco, Texas, and are nam ...

of the Double-A Central, hitting .242/.355/.368 with 5 home runs and 28 RBI. He split the 2022 season between Frisco and the

Round Rock Express The Round Rock Express are a Minor League Baseball team of the Pacific Coast League (PCL) and the Triple-A affiliate of the Texas Rangers. They are located in Round Rock, Texas, and play their home games at the Dell Diamond. The team is named ...

of the Triple-A

Pacific Coast League The Pacific Coast League (PCL) is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the Western United States. Along with the International League, it is one of two leagues playing at the Triple-A (baseball), Triple-A level, which is one grade bel ...

, hitting a combined .243/.360/.433 with 15 home runs, 45 RBI, and 39 stolen bases. He returned to Round Rock to open the 2023 season, hitting .312/.427/.565 with 12 home runs, 55 RBI, and 33 stolen bases over 67 games. On August 11, 2023, the Rangers selected Martínez's contract to the

40-man roster A Major League Baseball roster is a list of players who are allowed, by league agreement, to play for a Major League Baseball (MLB) team. Each MLB team maintains two rosters: an active roster of players eligible to participate in an MLB game, and ...

and promoted him to the major leagues for the first time to make his MLB debut that night. Martínez recorded his first MLB hit on August 12, a single off of Alex Cobb.

Atlanta Braves

On January 26, 2024, the Rangers traded Martínez to the

in exchange for Tyler Owens. He was optioned to the Triple–A Gwinnett Stripers to begin the 2024 season. In seven games for the Braves, Martínez went 2–for–10 (.200). He was designated for assignment by Atlanta on July 8. Martínez cleared waivers and was sent outright to Gwinnett on July 10.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Martínez, J. P. 1996 births Living people Atlanta Braves players Cuban expatriate baseball players in Canada Cuban expatriate baseball players in the United States Defecting Cuban baseball players Dominican Summer League Rangers players Down East Wood Ducks players Frisco RoughRiders players Ganaderos de Camaguey players Gwinnett Stripers players Hickory Crawdads players Indios de Guantanamo players Major League Baseball outfielders Major League Baseball players from Cuba People from Baracoa Round Rock Express players Spokane Indians players Surprise Saguaros players Texas Rangers players Toronjeros de Isla de la Juventud players