Fernando Martinez gets the call; Church, Reyes to the DL

Yahoo! Sports

Tue May 26 06:08pm EDT

Fernando Martinez gets the call; Church, Reyes to the DL

Jose Reyes (calf) and Ryan Church (notes) (hamstring) have both hit the disabled list, prompting the Mets to call up elite prospect Fernando Martinez (notes).

At 20, Martinez was very young for Triple-A, yet he's hit .291/.337/.552 in 178 plate appearances with eight homers and 15 doubles. Martinez is widely considered to be the top talent in the Mets' system and one of the best in baseball.

Despite his age, Martinez won't enter the Majors as an observer. Via the Daily News:

Minaya said he's comfortable with his top prospect Martinez playing either corner position, but Jerry Manuel will use Gary Sheffield (notes) in left field and Martinez in right field. Martinez will bat sixth.

You're adding in NL-only leagues for sure. Martinez is already owned throughout the dynasty world. I'm not jumping on him in standard mixed formats, although F-Mart was quickly added in every experts league I'm involved in. And experts are smart, so when they act, you must follow.

New York's lineup won't be pretty tonight. Carlos Beltran (notes) (knee) is expected to sit until the weekend and Carlos Delgado (notes) (hip) is still parked on the DL. When all these broken Mets get healthy, Martinez won't have a clear path to playing time. He'll need to seriously impress in the days ahead.

For the curious, here's a clip of Martinez owning the Louisville Bats...

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