Mexicali native Adrián Martínez proud to inspire others

On a sun-drenched August afternoon at the Oakland Coliseum, Adrián Martínez, just a few minutes after striking out American League MVP frontrunner Aaron Judge a second time in the game, handed the ball to A’s manager Mark Kotsay and walked off the mound to a standing ovation.

Moments like this didn’t seem realistic for Martínez. Inspiring young ballplayers from his native Mexicali, Baja California -- a section of Mexico where baseball is the most popular sport -- was unfathomable. Yet here is the 25-year-old right-handed rookie, a promising piece in the A’s starting rotation and the only active Major League Baseball player from Mexicali.

“I never thought I would be here,” Martínez said in Spanish one recent morning while sitting inside the A’s dugout at the Coliseum. “Truth is, it never crossed my mind that I would be able to reach the big leagues.”

Growing up in Ejido San Luis Potosí, a small rural town of just over 800 people, Martínez rarely was seen anywhere without a baseball in his hand. He was about 5 years old when he began emulating pitchers he’d watched on TV. Utilizing a wall outside his childhood home as his backstop, Martínez would repeatedly throw baseballs to his imaginary target, much to the chagrin of his mother, Martha Garcia.

“My Mom would get mad because she would paint the house and I would mess up the paint,” Martínez said. “You could hear her screaming all throughout the house.”

When Martínez turned 6, his parents enrolled him in a local baseball league. Soon after, baseball intrigue became a full-on passion.

Standing out in the youth leagues for a few years, Martínez advanced to playing with some of Baja California’s top players in national tournaments. As if he wasn’t motivated enough, the reward for the champions was often a trip for the entire team to catch a Padres game at Petco Park, about a three-hour bus ride from Mexicali.

Three times, Martínez earned a trip to go watch Major League Baseball in person.

“In that time, Adrián González and his brother, Edgar, played for the Padres,” Martínez recalled. “Every time we went, we would talk a lot about Adrián González. I always liked watching baseball on TV. When I got to Petco Park for the first time, it was the coolest thing ever.”

Though Martínez experienced early success, the thought of actually playing in the Majors hadn’t crossed his mind. As a teenager, Martínez was a tall but skinny 16-year-old who only weighed about 130 pounds. His fastball maxed out around 78 mph. At this point, Martínez wasn’t even sure he was good enough to sign with a Mexican League team.

Then came a gift from the baseball gods.

While playing in small local Sunday league games at 16 years old against much older competition, Martínez was approached by Ricardo Zuniga, a local baseball trainer in the Mexicali area. Zuniga saw potential in Martínez’s 6-foot-2 frame and encouraged him to train at his facility, where he could work on strength training to add some fastball velocity.

“He told me I would develop and be able to sign with a team,” Martínez said. “He was going to try to help me, so I started to train with him. In about three weeks, I was throwing 87 mph.”

For a month, Martínez trained five days a week. As soon as school let out, he’d go home for a quick meal and get dropped off at Zuniga’s training center. The location was closer to the city of Mexicali, so his mother and father, Adrián Sr., would take turns making the one-hour drive to and from the 5 p.m. session.

“It helped me a lot,” Martínez said. “Before that, I didn’t have much hope that I would be able to sign with a team in Mexico, much less in the United States. Ultimately, I was able to develop my body.”

Adding the needed weight to his wiry frame, Martínez stood out in the local leagues. Shortly after turning 17 in December 2013, he signed with the Diablos Rojos del Mexico -- one of the most storied franchises in the Mexican League -- and joined their developmental program.

Homesick upon arriving to the club’s state-of-the-art complex for newly signed players near Mexico City, Martínez adjusted to the new environment and shined. At the end of the three-month camp, he was moved to a higher-level complex where Major League scouts were often present. Martínez threw a fastball that was up to 92 mph. The pitch that really caught their attention, though, was his unique changeup.

With a different spin that moves left to right and remains in the zone until sharply bottoming out at the last second, scouts likened the pitch to a screwball. That’s because it kind of was.

As a youth, Martínez would scour the internet for videos of legendary Dodgers Mexican left-hander hander Fernando Valenzuela, whose signature pitch was a screwball.

“I would always watch Fernando Valenzuela and say, ‘I want to have that pitch,’” Martínez said. “My grip is the same as a changeup. It’s just the release point when I throw it that’s a little different from the normal changeup to give it that spin kind of like a screwball. It’s something I always had. I just needed to polish it.”

He received interest from the Dodgers and Padres. After a solid showing representing Mexico at the 2014 COPABE 18U Pan American Championship, the Padres increased their offer. Two months after his 18th birthday, Martínez officially signed with San Diego on Feb. 16, 2015.

Logging innings in the Dominican Summer League team to begin his professional career, Martínez entered Padres 2016 rookie minicamp in Arizona and impressed San Diego’s coaching staff. Then, one February morning during a live batting-practice session, he hit the lowest point of his career.

“I threw a fastball and it felt like a shocking sensation coming up my arm,” Martínez said. “I threw another pitch and something popped in my arm. It hurt a lot. I couldn’t keep throwing, so I went to the training room.”

The Padres immediately shut down Martínez from throwing for two weeks so they could figure out the issue. MRI results revealed a tear in his right elbow. He required Tommy John surgery and faced a recovery timeline of 12-14 months.

“When they told me that, I thought to myself, ‘Wow. My career is over,” Martínez said. “I started crying.”

Martínez went through rehab for the next 14 months. Returning to the mound on June 2017 to get some work in the Arizona League, he opened 2018 at Single-A Fort Wayne and struggled to the point that he was demoted to Short Season Tri-City to finish the year.

“I thought I was going to get released,” Martínez said. “I was terrible. In my mind, the Padres no longer had plans for me. After that, I changed my mindset. I had to show something.”

Assigned to Fort Wayne in 2019, Martínez regained his fastball velocity and then some, throwing 96-97 mph. He finished with a 3.22 ERA in 81 innings across Single-A and High-A. Following the 2020 pandemic, Martínez put himself on San Diego’s prospect radar in 2021 with a 3.38 ERA and 122 strikeouts over a combined 125 innings at Double-A and Triple-A. That stellar campaign made him a coveted pitcher by the A’s, who acquired him as one of two prospects in exchange for Sean Manaea in April.

Called up by the A’s for his debut on May 10 at Comerica Park, Martínez began his Major League career with 5 1/3 shutout innings and a win over the Tigers. Since then, battling through the typical ups and downs of a rookie season, the A’s see more than enough to believe he fits into their future plans.

“This guy has a good ceiling,” said A’s pitching coach Scott Emerson. “Plus changeup. Good fastball that he can move around. Developing breaking ball. When he puts those all together, the sky is the limit.”

Martínez takes pride in where he’s from. He makes that clear when “Puro Cachanilla,” a song dedicated to his native Mexicali by the late legendary Mexican singer Vicente Fernández, plays over the Coliseum speakers when he walks out to the mound. As he grows into his own as a big leaguer, Martínez embraces the opportunity to be a role model to the next generation of aspiring players in Mexico.

“It’s a dream of mine to represent my country. It’s an honor,” Martínez said. “When I was a kid, I would always say I wanted to play in Mexico and nowhere else. Now being here with a chance to inspire other Mexicans, I feel really proud.”