For Martinez, baseball's unwritten rules have changed

During a 16-year playing career from 1986-2001 that included 6,480 plate appearances, Davey Martinez reached a 3-0 count 300 times. And on only four of those occasions did he put the ball in play, going 2-for-4 with a triple.

Such an approach wasn't uncommon in those days. Most guys didn't swing on a 3-0 count. And they certainly didn't in a lopsided game, when doing so could be construed as showing up the opposition.

Martinez still feels that way. And if he was at the plate in that kind of situation in 2020, he wouldn't swing. But he's not at the plate in 2020. The players he manages are.

They've come to understand it's OK to swing, and Martinez isn't about to tell them they can't.

"You have two different generations of the game, and the game has evolved, drastically," the Nationals manager said today during his pregame Zoom session with reporters from Atlanta. "Everything's based on stats. If you're up there, and you're a young hitter, you get a count that's 3-0, you got all these runs, what are you going to do? You're taught to go up there and swing the bat. When I was playing, in our generation, there was this unwritten rule if you're up by a bunch of runs, the pitcher's struggling, you take a strike.

"The game has changed."

The game indeed has changed, but there are enough veterans and former players still in uniform as coaches and managers to still cringe when this unwritten rule is broken. So events like what happened Monday night in Texas - young Padres star Fernando Tatis Jr. hit a grand slam on a 3-0 pitch with his team winning 10-3 in the top of the eighth, prompting Rangers reliever Ian Gibaut to intentionally throw behind the next batter, Manny Machado, setting off a war of words that spread throughout the baseball universe over the next 24 hours - make headlines.

Gibaut and Rangers manager Chris Woodward (whose postgame criticism of Tatis spread like wildfire over social media and helped turn this into a national story) each were suspended by Major League Baseball today.

Everyone seemingly has staked his or her position on the debate and refuses to budge. Martinez is trying to look at it from a different perspective. And he hopes his players are willing to do that as well.

"What I worry about is they only see things one way," the 55-year-old skipper said. "I want them to have a bigger spectrum of what transpires and what goes on. I teach them what went on when I played the game, and before me and what I learned, and why they do what they do and why these unwritten rules apply. So that they understand. For me, they make their own judgment about what they want to do."

Martinez does believe in letting his players set their own ground rules for decorum and appropriate behavior on the field. He'll make the occasional suggestion, and last season he did tell Juan Soto and Victor Robles he preferred they wait to celebrate home runs until they return to the dugout, not wanting to appear as if they're disrespecting the opposition.

But he strongly believes in letting players be themselves. He wants Soto to express his personality and recognizes his mannerisms on the field - most notably, his so-called "Soto shuffle" between pitches - make him the player he is.

Which is why Martinez was quick to defend his star left fielder after Braves reliever Will Smith glared at him and made disparaging remarks when Soto admired his ninth-inning homer during Monday night's game.

"Juan does his thing," Martinez said. "I told him: 'I played with a lot of guys (who did) a lot worse than what you do up there. That's just who you are. I know you don't show anybody up. Just play the game. If anything happens, if someone says anything to you, I'll be the first one to say something back.' "

Baseball is trying to reap the benefits of a new generation of star players who display not only talent but personality every night. "Let the Kids Play," MLB declared in no uncertain terms during a 2019 ad campaign.

It's up to that new generation and the old guard to work together how best to showcase all of it.

"We have to start having these conversations with these younger players and figure out what your standards are as a manager," Martinez said. "These guys, they get it. We have these conversations and try to teach them the right way to play the games."