31
2012
Jefry Marte: Is He Still Developing?
An article by 
As of a few years ago, the Mets had a promising crop of young international free agents – primarily Cesar Puello, Aderlin Rodriguez, Wilmer Flores and a young third baseman by the name of Jefry Marte. After five full seasons under his belt, Mr. Marte has shown progress – but is it enough to consider him a valid prospect?
Jefry Marte was signed as an IFA in 2007 out of the Dominican Republic and his major selling point was a plus hit tool and power-potential if he filled out his 6’1″ frame. Marte has played a full season at every level except for Lo-A, where he hit .233 in his first trip, and .264 his second time. Marte has progressively improved his plate discipline while cutting his strikeout rate, but has always had a problem with turning his contact into hits, as shown by his career .254 average. While the power has slowly ticked up, Marte hit nine home runs this season after hitting seven last season, he saw a downturn in stolen bases with nine this season compared to the 14 he had in 2011.
What has always been a problem for Marte was playing steady defense at third base, and despite still being very rough around the edges he has cut his error rate nearly 50%, with 15 errors in 2012 compared to the 28 errors he had in 2011. If the power potential surfaced, having a poor defensive showing at the hot corner as long as he could at least be average is tolerable. At the major league level though, a corner infielder hitting below .250 with ten home runs wouldn’t fly on any team.
The primary concern with Marte is – as power develops, singles become doubles, and doubles become home runs. Marte has yet to hit more than 22 doubles in a season which seems to exhibit he may not have top-flight power. As an example, Aderlin Rodriguez hit two more doubles and seven more home runs from 2011 to 2012 – over 30 less at-bats. Marte hit two less doubles and two more home runs in 20 less at-bats. So is his potential still power-hitting corner infielder, or organizational filler? Wilmer Flores was only two doubles shy and one homer short of matching Marte’s AA performance – in half the AB’s.
Marte looks to be set to repeat at Double-A Binghamton, unless he is promoted to Las Vegas to clear some AB’s for Wilmer Flores. The future seems much cloudier, and unless Marte becomes an above average third-baseman or has a power-spike, which isn’t uncommon, his place as a prospect and on the 2014 Mets minor league roster is in question
About the Author: Sean Kenny
Sean Kenny is a student/writer currently attending school at the City College of New York. For more Mets news, notes and thoughts follow him on twitter @TheSeanKenny
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Yeah, you get bored by some names after a while. Havens,Puello, Marte, it’s just these kids have been around so long and only so long can you live off of potential without results. Just ask Fmart.
A now ancient 22 year old F-Mart actually had a better year in the minors than most if not all of our OF prospects
F-Mart in August / September hit in the .260′s with 6 HR
Right now…
We could have a young OF of Duda (LF), with Kirk, Valdy, and F-Mart vying for CF / RF positions
Instead we’ll probably have Bay, Torres and Hairston…
You are so dang predictable. You can’t change what Fmart is or was. A guy who has arthritis in his knees at age 21 and has a MLB line of
.209 .274 .373 .647
Glad he isn’t dead and saw some success.
ahhh yes…the he is injured goods theory…
same thing met fans said about vlad guerrero…he went on to have a nice career…
same thing met fans said about signing beltran….he went on to have the best year of any NL RF
same thing met fans said about resigning reyes…he went to have a very healthy 2012…
but we must stop at nothing to sign mr. baby got fractured back David Wright to a 7 year contract
lol ok
talk about predictable
Just, I am just going move on from all of your post. It’s always the same thing, race baiting and double standards. Time to move on.
lol
until u are actually willing to man up to these double-standards…i am going to bring them up
AAAA player. Never has and never will hit at majors. Chronic arthritis will have him out of game in 2-3 years.
To Met fans, he’s a AAAA player…
In Houston, he’s a 23 year old who hit over .300 in the minors this year and is projected as a starter at RF next year.
O and by the way…after getting some regular starts…he hit over .300 against MLB pitching in September…
wow, hitting 300 in September against most team’s AAA call ups. impressive
more than a few of those game were against teams in a playoff chase…he faced the giants, cards, brewers
face it..even he were to ressurect his career…u guys will still stubbornly insist he sucks and is a banana peel away from a career-ending injury…
Im not saying he is going to be Barry Bonds…
I am saying we were in no position to let him go…
that is unless you are cool with playing Fred Lewis, Andres Torres, and Jason Bay instead
it is mind-boggling how we held onto Scott Hairston at the break…held onto Byrdack…last year held onto Izzy…released F-Mart for nothing…
and then say we are trying to rebuild…
THINK
Are you still pinning away for Alex Escobar too?
Martinez, despite having a plethora of tools, has missed years of development time to injury. He has a degenerative knee condition that will continue to get worse. His performance last year was buoyed by a babip 140 points higher than his career number.
Maybe by miracle of miracles he can stay healthy longer than a few months and work himself into a passable mlb player, but those odds are low and until then he’s roster fodder.
[...] Is Jefry Marte still developing? MetsMerized Online [...]
Until nothing better arrives put him in AA and Flores in AAA.
You never know……