TAMPA, Fla. -- J.D. Martinez wasn't even thinking Tuesday about where he was on March 24, 2014.
A year ago, Martinez signed with the Detroit Tigers after being released by the Houston Astros.
"I had some options available but the Tigers were giving me what I wanted," Martinez said after leaving Tuesday's game in Tampa, Fla. "The big thing was the opt-out. I wanted an opt-out and they were giving it to me."
The opt-out meant that Martinez could leave the organization if he got a chance at the big leagues with another team.
"I kind of knew coming in that I didn't really have a chance at the big-league club, because they were set," Martinez said.
Martinez knew that the Tigers already had Rajai Davis, Austin Jackson and Torii Hunter.
But he had a history with Tigers assistant general manager Al Avila, who had watched him grow up in Miami, and with coach Dave Clark, who had been with the Astros, and with Tigers manager Brad Ausmus, also a former member of the Astros.
"I knew I was going to get treated right," Martinez said. "And that's all I wanted from an organization. I didn't want to get treated more as a subject."
Martinez knew he could play every day at Triple-A Toledo and he took full advantage, hitting .308 with 10 home runs and 22 RBI in just 17 games.
When Hunter got hurt, the door opened and Martinez walked right through.
Martinez played in 123 games with the Tigers, batting .315 with 23 home runs and 76 RBI, solidifying the No. 5 spot in the lineup behind Miguel Cabrera and Victor Martinez.
Martinez seemed to fit in seamlessly in the clubhouse, as if he'd been there with the team from the beginning.
"That was what was so awesome about this team when I came over," Martinez said. "I was just blown away. And everybody was asking how's the clubhouse. I was like, 'Dude, there's no egos here.' Coming from the Astros, where you had one or two established players and you always see there was like that one guy that has that ego, that self-entitlement coming in, like, 'Get up, I've got 10 years on you, you little punk,' when I got here they didn't have that."
Martinez couldn't believe superstars like Cabrera and Victor Martinez made him feel so welcome.
"Having Miggy come to me, who was like my idol, and I never really met him, I just knew him from across the field and talking to him, and Victor come to me and congratulate me and talk to me as if I'd known them for 10 years and give me a big hug. Even Torii," Martinez said. "That was one thing I immediately learned from them was that. Anytime a young guy comes up, you can do that and you can just make them feel like a part of the team right away. I think that was just the best thing to happen to me was those guys opening up and not pushing me out and making me feel like I was nothing."
Martinez eagerly soaked up all the knowledge he could from the veteran players.
He also worked to maintain the swing that he had revamped last offseason and make quick adjustments.
"In the past, I would make the adjustment and it would take me a couple weeks, and by then I would drop 40 points, where I felt like last year I was able to make adjustments a lot quicker," Martinez said.
That's part of the reason why Martinez, who is hitting .348 with four doubles, a team-leading five home runs and team-leading 11 RBI this spring, isn't concerned with pitchers figuring him out this year.
"Because of the changes that I made (in my swing)," Martinez said. "I understood it now, but before I never really understood what I was trying to do."
Ausmus said teams will certainly have more in-depth scouting reports on Martinez than they did a year ago.
"And they're much more aware of him as a power threat," Ausmus said. "So they'll be a little more careful with him."
Martinez has no hard feelings at all towards the Astros. Instead, he's thankful.
"They let me go when a lot of teams would, I would say bury me, keep me in Triple-A, made me play behind younger guys that are prospects for them," Martinez said. "So I give thanks to them for it. It was a risky move, and luckily for me it paid off.
"I think God has a plan and right when you think the world's falling apart on you, you never know what He's got up his sleeve. That's how I like to look at it."
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