Pittsburgh Pirates: Mason Martin Making His Case to be Promoted

Mason Martin has been lighting up Double-A lately and has been making a case for the Pittsburgh Pirates to promote him to Triple-A Indianapolis

The Pittsburgh Pirates have been struggling at first base all season, between injuries and Will Craig forgetting basic rules of baseball, but they do have a bright spot shining in Doule-A Altoona and that is Mason Martin.

According to MLB Pipeline, Martin is currently ranked as the organization’s 14th best prospect. In Altoona, Martin has been placed into the clean-up spot and deemed the power hitter for all of their games when it comes to in-game promotions, which greatly reflect how powerful his bat really is.

Martin was given a raw power rating of 70 by Fangraphs and he is really proving that this year, as he is currently tied for 3rd in Double-A Northeast and 5th in all of Double-A for home runs at 13. He also has been doing his role of clean-up well as he is currently tied for 4th in the Northeast division with 40 RBIs on the year.

Martin has really been on a tear this last week, showing that he may have finally found his groove in Altoona. Over the last seven days, he leads the Northeast in HRs (4), RBIs (8), Slugging (1.111), and OPS (1.511). These are the types of numbers that warrant a promotion, but Martin has one big red flag.

That red flag would be his strikeout percentage. While his strikeouts are going to be a little higher since he is the type of player to emphasize power over contact, his strikeout percentage is alarmingly high. On the season he has a strikeout percentage of 32.2%, but over the last seven games, he has been able to get it down to about 27.8%.

While neither is great, his percentage as of late is falling and if he can keep that up, Martin should be expecting a call-up to Indy soon, as the Pittsburgh Pirates have made it clear they do not like what they have seen in Will Craig this year. They did this when they traded for a struggling first baseman with little to no Major League experience to fill in for injuries at first, rather than call Craig back up.