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Yankees first base prospect Ernesto Martinez Jr. holds bat over shoulder in spring training amid strong early-season performance.
A little-known Yankees offseason signing is suddenly forcing a closer look at the team’s first base situation after a scorching start at Triple-A. The Yankees appear to have their first base situation settled with Ben Rice taking primary duties after his 26-homer season last year, and veteran Paul Goldschmidt on a one-year, $4 million contract returning to be Rice’s backup. But the Yankees may very quietly have found a third option, who is getting off to a sensational start at the minor league level.
This offseason, the Yankees signed 26-year-old Cuban-French prospect Ernesto Martinez Jr. away from the Milwaukee Brewers as a minor league free agent. At a physically imposing 6-foot-6, 254-pound frame, Martinez had already been identified by scouts as one of the best players in Cuba by the time the Brewers signed him at age 17 in 2017. With Rice entrenched and Goldschmidt nearing the late stage of his career, the Yankees may be facing an unexpected decision at first base sooner than anticipated.
Martinez Jr. performed at such a high level as a teenage player he earned the nickname “El Espectáculo,” or “The Show.” But like many international players signed at such a young age, Martinez Jr., whose father was a star catcher in the Cuban leagues as well as for the French national baseball team, took several years to develop, and over the past two years his career was derailed by injuries.
In 2025, after he missed time with a thumb injury suffered in an April sliding mishap, the Brewers appeared to give up on him. When “El Espectáculo” opted for minor league free agency after the season, Milwaukee made no effort to retain him.
But judging by his first games of 2026, the Brewers’ loss looks like the Yankees’ gain.
Martinez Jr. Posts Early 1.000 OPS
Martinez has played only the first three games of the season for the Scranton Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, but he has gotten off to a scorching start. He has recorded a double, a triple and two singles, plus a stolen base, in 11 plate appearances as the RailRiders took two of three from the Buffalo Bisons, the Toronto Blue Jays‘ Triple-A affiliate.
Though he has played professional baseball since 2017, Martinez Jr. is starting only his second season at the Triple-A level. In an injury-shortened season for the Brewers’ Nashville Sounds affiliate last year, the towering first baseman hit six home runs in 311 plate appearances with a .745 OPS.
“The only thing we need is to get the ball in the air more and stay healthy,” Martinez Jr. said in a February interview with Que Pasa MLB. “That’s basically all we’ve been working on. Defensively, just staying more consistent with grounders, but everything else is fine.”
While it appears doubtful that Martinez Jr. will displace Rice at first base, Goldschmidt may turn out to be a different story. At age 38, and with a .731 OPS last year and a .716 mark in 2024, the former National League MVP may exert a more tenuous hold on his roster spot, especially if Martinez Jr. can prove that his impressive first three games in the Yankees organization were not a fluke.
Martinez Jr. Once Compared to Bryce Harper
According to Brewers analyst Steven Ohlrogge of Reviewing the Brew, Martinez Jr. “has drawn comparisons to Bryce Harper and Yoenis Cespedes.”
Writing earlier in March, Patrick Ellington Jr. of The Red Black Green Baseball Blog provided a scouting report on Martinez Jr., noting that it was “now or never” for the Yankees offseason acquisition.
“Despite being 6-foot-6 and weighing nearly 260 pounds, Martínez Jr. is an above-average athlete with loose hips, great hands, and advanced dexterity,” Ellington Jr. wrote. “His range, internal clock, and creativity at the cold corner are good enough to put him in the running to snag a few Gold Gloves if he plays enough to be considered a full-time player in MLB. He is also an above-average base runner with a history of swiping bags throughout his minor league career.”
The Yankees will undoubtedly keep a close eye on Martinez Jr. in case an injury or other circumstance creates an opening on the big league roster for a new first baseman.
Jonathan Vankin JONATHAN VANKIN is an award-winning journalist and writer who now covers baseball and other sports for Heavy.com. He twice won New England Press Association awards for sports feature writing. He was a sports editor and writer at The Daily Yomiuri in Tokyo, Japan, covering Japan Pro Baseball, boxing, sumo and other sports. More about Jonathan Vankin
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