Martinez enters his second season with the Nationals and his second season as a Major League manager...2019 will mark his 31st season in professional baseball, including ten years (2008-17) as a Major League bench coach...The Nationals went 82-80 (.506) in his first managerial season in 2018...From 2015-17, he served as the bench coach for the Chicago Cubs where he played an integral role in three Postseason appearances, two National League Central Division titles and the Cubs' 2016 World Series Championship...Prior to joining the Cubs, he spent seven seasons (2008-14) as the bench coach for the Tampa Bay Rays...He was the longest tenured bench coach in Rays history...Martinez joined the Rays in 2008 after serving as a Spring Training instructor for the Rays in 2006 and 2007...Then-manager Joe Maddon offered Martinez the role of bench coach and Martinez went on to serve as Maddon's right-hand man for the next 10 seasons...During his tenure as bench coach, Martinez was in charge of nearly every aspect of the Rays and Cubs strategy, including controlling the opponent's running game, defensive positioning, baserunning, and bunting.
PLAYING CAREER
A veteran of 16 Major League seasons, Martinez broke into the big leagues with the Chicago Cubs in 1986 at the age of 21...During the 1986 season, he was the 10th-youngest player in Major League Baseball...He made his debut on June 15, 1986 vs. St. Louis and recorded his first hit on June 23 at Philadelphia, a ninth-inning single off Shane Rawley...Martinez played in 1,918 games while amassing 1,599 hits for nine clubs across his 16-year career...Following twoplus seasons with the Cubs (1986-88), Martinez was acquired by the Montreal Expos, where he played from 1988-91...He spent the 1992 season with the Cincinnati Reds before stints with the San Francisco Giants (1993-94) and Chicago White Sox (1995-97)...He was a key member of the 1993 Giants club that won 103 games, but missed out on the Postseason...Following the 1997 season, he signed with the expansion Tampa Bay Devil Rays and in 1998, he recorded the first hit in Devil Rays history, a single off Justin Thompson (DET)...Martinez returned to the Cubs in 2000, while also spending time with the Texas Rangers and Toronto Blue Jays during the 2000 season...He capped his career with the Atlanta Braves, spending the 2001 season with the eventual National League East Division champions.
POSTSEASON CAREER
Martinez's clubs made it to the Postseason in seven of his 10 seasons as a coach...Most notably, Martinez was a member of the staff that led the Chicago Cubs to the 2016 World Series Championship...With Chicago, Martinez reached three consecutive National League Championship Series...He made four trips to the Postseason with Tampa Bay, including a trip to the 2008 World Series...As a player, Martinez appeared in the 2001 Postseason as the Atlanta Braves advanced to the National League Championship Series...He recorded his only Postseason hit as a pinch hitter in the seventh inning of Game Four of the NLCS on Oct. 20, 2001 vs. ARI (Batista).
PERSONAL
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., David "Davey" Martinez moved to Florida as a youth and attended Lake Howell High School in Winter Park, Fla....He attended Valencia Community College in Orlando, Fla. before being selected by the Chicago Cubs in the 1983 MLB January Draft-Secondary Phase...Is an avid outdoorsman and bike rider...Has four children: Josh, Jagger, Dalton, and Angelica and two granddaughters, Everly Ann and Amora Grace.