Martin began his major-league career at the beginning of the downfall of the Rick Hahn rebuild, then missed the 2023 season and most of 2024 recovering from Tommy John surgery, making last year his first full season as a starter.<\/p>\n
Now he seems like a shoo-in for the All-Star Game. At SoxFest in January, Martin joked about having the longest tenure of any Sox player.<\/p>\n
\u201cI went in and tried to get my handicapped sticker,\u201d he said. \u201cThey said, \u2018Get out of here, you\u2019re 29, you\u2019re not that old.\u2019 It\u2019s crazy. It just shows how fast life goes and the turnover in major-league baseball, how quick it is.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m ready to be whatever this team asks of me, and at the same time, I know where I\u2019m at in my service time. I still have a lot of time to learn and be a better player, and I\u2019m going to continue to learn and ask from older guys that are better than me. It\u2019s a continuing education in baseball. You\u2019ve never got it figured out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Martin is a quick learner and one of the big reasons for the Sox turnaround. He\u2019s a good role model for players who expect to make it big in their early 20s and cash in with a huge contract. Humility goes a long way in baseball.<\/p>\n
Martin is making only $789,900 this season and won\u2019t be eligible for free agency until after 2030, meaning the Sox have control of him for four more years. Hopefully they\u2019ll reward him instead of trading him before he hits the market, like they did with Dylan Cease, Garrett Crochet and others.<\/p>\n
Time for something completely different?
\n![\"Cubs](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/CTC-L-CUBS-SPRING_db3b26.jpg\")
Cubs outfielder Kevin Alc\u00e1ntara stands on the field during batting practice at spring training at Sloan Park on Feb. 19, 2026, in Mesa, Ariz. (Armando L. Sanchez\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not enough for the Chicago Cubs to call up prospects Pedro Ram\u00edrez and Kevin Alc\u00e1ntara. Now manager Craig Counsell has to find a way to play them.<\/p>\n
\u201cLook, I think we\u2019ve got to do something different,\u201d Counsell said Friday after their sixth straight loss<\/a>.<\/p>\n He did that Saturday by putting Pete Crow-Armstrong in the leadoff spot and inserting Michael Conforto in left field in place of the slumping Ian Happ. But why not play the kids?<\/p>\n Alc\u00e1ntara had 15 home runs, 32 RBIs, a .567 slugging percentage and a .906 OPS in 41 games with Triple-A Iowa, the third-most home runs in the minors. Ram\u00edrez was hitting .312 with nine home runs at Iowa.<\/p>\n Both of them pinch-hit in Saturday\u2019s 3-0 loss to the Houston Astros<\/a>, the Cubs\u2019 seventh straight defeat. Crow-Armstrong went 1-for-4 \u2014 one of only three Cubs hits \u2014 as Counsell\u2019s changes couldn\u2019t keep them from falling to 0-5 on the homestand and getting loudly booed after the final out.<\/p>\n Counsell said Ram\u00edrez probably would have a \u201cshorter stint,\u201d which suggests he\u2019ll be back at Iowa when Matt Shaw returns from the injured list. With the Cubs offense struggling, it\u2019s puzzling to hear Ram\u00edrez won\u2019t get much of a shot \u2014 especially with Mois\u00e9s Ballesteros in a deep slump<\/a>, hitting .059 (3-for-51) since April 28.<\/p>\n Nicky Lopez, a defensive-minded player, was a good clubhouse presence but played in only four games and went 0-for-5 before being designated for assignment Saturday.<\/p>\n Counsell could\u2019ve used a decent bat off the bench in many of these recent losses.<\/p>\n Wemby and the sky hook The greatest shot creation in NBA history was Kareem Abdul-Jabbar\u2019s sky hook, which few centers have been able to replicate, much less master. Watching 7-foot-4 San Antonio Spurs star Victor Wembanyama get mauled in the playoffs, you have to wonder when he\u2019s going to develop a sky hook of his own.<\/p>\n With a 7-9 wingspan, Wembanyama would seem nearly impossible to stop in the post. He said a few years ago he wanted to master the sky hook, but he seems more interested in being a 3-point shooter, like every other modern big man. Abdul-Jabbar once said<\/a> \u201cit\u2019s not a hard shot to learn,\u201d but no one takes the time or has interest.<\/p>\n \u201cIt teaches you how to use footwork, feet and hands, how to use the backboard,\u201d he said. \u201cGuys who can play with their back to the basket, that\u2019s a valuable guy, not somebody you can just discard. That\u2019s somebody who can win games.\u201d<\/p>\n But no one wants to do it in the modern era, when most big men want to play like they\u2019re shooting guards.<\/p>\n It\u2019s too late for this season, but hopefully Wembanyama can add a hook to his repertoire next season. It\u2019s fascinating to watch the Oklahoma City Thunder put a wing on Wemby on the perimeter, as they did with Jalen Williams<\/a> in Game 3 of the Western Conference finals, along with big man Isaiah Hartenstein inside.<\/p>\n The best defensive team in the NBA keeps proving that defense wins games \u2014 and that no one is unstoppable.<\/p>\n Non sequiturs<\/p>\n The Cubs not acknowledging the death of Billy Goat Tavern owner Sam Sianis<\/a> at Wrigley Field this week shows you how little the team\u2019s owners care about the city\u2019s rich baseball history. \u2026 I\u2019m guessing the Bears will keep floating that lakefront stadium idea<\/a> until the first shovel goes into the ground for their Arlington Heights stadium. \u2026 Did anyone else notice the uncanny resemblance between the Sox fan who heckled Pete Crow-Armstrong<\/a> at Rate Field and Denise Swerski, the waitress and \u201cMiss South Side of Chicago\u201d in the \u201cSaturday Night Live\u201d Superfans sketches<\/a>?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Davis Martin seems like an overnight sensation, but it\u2019s just an optical illusion. The Chicago White Sox ace…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":707431,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2379],"tags":[5,138,24,49,2561,5285,88868,9675,4,45122,70837,396,2562],"class_list":["post-707430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago-white-sox","tag-baseball","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-cubs","tag-chicago-white-sox","tag-chicagowhitesox","tag-davis-martin","tag-kareem-abdul-jabbar","tag-kevin-alcantara","tag-mlb","tag-pedro-ramirez","tag-victor-wembanyama","tag-white-sox","tag-whitesox"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116629257865882686","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=707430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707430\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/707431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=707430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=707430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=707430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n![\"Victor](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/CTC-L-BULLS_a98942.jpg\")
Victor Wembanyama of the Spurs reacts during the fourth quarter against the Thunder in Game 3 of the Western Conference finals Friday, May 22, 2026, in San Antonio. (Alex Slitz\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n