New to Arizona, Martinez sees Diamondbacks are a ‘hungry’ team
Jul 23, 2017, 8:00 AM
Arizona Diamondbacks right fielder J.D. Martinez stands in the dugout in the first inning of a baseball game against the Cincinnati Reds, Wednesday, July 19, 2017, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
(AP Photo/John Minchillo)
The Arizona Diamondbacks made a big move on Tuesday.
In an effort to keep the momentum going and make a push for the playoffs, they traded for outfielder J.D. Martinez from the Detroit Tigers for three prospects.
The D-backs, who are one of the surprise teams in MLB this year, have been meshing on the field, and Martinez said he can tell why they’re having a successful season in just the short time since he’s arrived.
“From the two days I’ve been here it’s just hunger, that’s what I see. If I had to put one word on it, it’s a hungry team,” Martinez told reporters on Friday. “It’s a young group of guys that kind of want to make their mark and kind of show what they can do. I feel like they just got a really good thing going on right now and it just seems like a very fun clubhouse. Everybody’s in there laughing, messing around, having fun. They all kind of move together.”
Winning is fun, after all, but it’s important to have that camaraderie even during a losing streak. That close bond between each other may be the reason they have bounced back from a five-game skid, after all.
Martinez is now one of the oldest players on the team, coming over at 29 years old. Only seven players are 30 years old or older on the 25-man roster.
With this his seventh year in the big leagues, he assuredly can add experience value to the young guys, something manager Torey Lovullo told him to do.
“Torey was telling me about that, and it’s kind of different coming from Detroit where I was the young guy. Still at 29, I was one of the young guys. Here, I come here and now I’m one of the older guys, so I definitely want to get used to the clubhouse before, but like Torey said, he goes, ‘If you see anything, I want you to speak up about it and stuff like that to the guys.’ So I’ve got no problem saying something or just talking to somebody,” Martinez said.
Don’t think he’s going to hurt the chemistry in that locker room, however, just to be heard as the new guy.
“I’m not going to sit there and jump on someone for no reason, I just got here but I’ll definitely try helping out and teaching them what I’ve learned and some of the growing pains I went through, maybe help them out in skipping those pains.”
