J. D. Martinez

“You can ask every coach from Ron Gardenhire to Dave Clark, anyone who has seen me play, they don't know why they say I'm a bad defender.”

“Man, it literally starts from after the game. I get every at-bat sent to me from the game. I'll go home, I'll watch every at-bat, kind of break down the game, kind of see, OK, what did I do? Why'd I miss this pitch? Why'd I hit that pitch?”

“I love to talk about hitting. It's a passion of mine.”

“Losing is incentivized now. You have 80 percent of the teams trying to lose.”

“I'm a very analytical guy, I like to study my swing, I like to study what my back foot is doing, my elbow, whatever it might be, and there's a lot of guys nowadays that are like that. That's the trend of the game, that's the way the game has gone.”

“That's the hardest play in baseball, is a line drive right at you.”

“To me, I just play baseball, whether I have the contract or not.”

“When you're up there and everything feels good and you're competing against the pitcher and the pitcher strikes you out, you're like, 'OK, yeah, I struck out, but that's OK.'”

“I preach about getting the ball in the air.”

“I love the game and I love to play. You have to admire fans who are the same way.”

“I'm always just grinding and figuring out what adjustment I need to make and how to tweak my swing to where I want it to be for that game and that pitcher.”

“My whole life, I've felt like I've always had to prove myself. It's never been easy, as easy as others who are in my position have had it.”

“I never pressure anyone to believe what I believe. It's their choice. But when guys ask me, I'm always open, and I share.”

“I don't go up there and try to hit home runs.”

“You can't say it's good when guys out there are signing minor league deals and they would be big league players on 80 percent of the teams, but why would a team sign a player when you can pay dirt, and they're not going to win anyway?”

“Paul Goldschmidt, who gave me the confidence to lead as one of the game's greatest players, acknowledged that what I had to say was valuable to my teammates and crucial to winning.”

“Whenever you see me and I'm hitting ground ball after ground ball, you know I'm not feeling right.”

“I've lost a lot. I'm tired of it. It's not fun.”