From Undrafted to Unstoppable: The Incredible Rise of Yankees Prospect Garrett Martin

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Garrett Martin, Yankees outfield prospect who has been making really loud noise in the minor leagues this season, has an incredible story to how he got to this point of his career.

Drafted in the 22nd round out of high school, he passed on signing and chose to play at McLennan Community College for two years before transferring to Oklahoma State University and finishing his collegiate career at Austin Peay. Martin would go on to sign as an undrafted free agent in the 2023 class. His first professional year with the Tarpons was one to forget, but it's also a crucial chapter in one of the more compelling rise stories in the Yankees system.

Slashing just .200/.325/.292 without a home runs and 6 XBH in 18 games show rough surface numbers. But the underlying metrics told a different story, a .317 xwOBA signaled that the performance was there, it just hadn't shown up in the results yet. Entering 2024, Martin set out to build off that foundation, and he delivered. Slashing .216/.326/.422 with 12 home runs, 32 extra-base hits, and 17 stolen bases, the improvement was unmistakable.

The power that defined his college career was translating in a big way, a 130-point jump in SLG and a 114-point jump in ISO made that crystal clear.

His 2024 season was good enough for him to force the Yankees’ hand and promote him to AA, where he would spend the entire 2025 season with the Patriots, and he would remain very stagnant stat-wise. 2025 was definitely a tough adjustment period for Martin, slashing just .222/.292/.389 with 14 home runs and 30 XBH while swiping 20 bags. The adjustment period from High-A to AA hit him. But as he showed in his first 2 years of professional baseball, his ability to adapt and improve throughout the year and over the course of an offseason is special, and oh boy did he have a big season of AA ahead of him…

In just 63 games at AA, Garrett Martin slashed .270/.344/.568 with 21 home runs, leading all of AA, and 35 XBH while swiping 20 bags. Garrett Martin didn’t just improve, he transformed himself into one of the most feared power hitters in all of minor league baseball. The underlying metrics are also through the roof, with a wOBA nearing .400, and power that has yet to slow down but only heat up as the season progresses. On June 20th of 2026, Martin forced the Yankees’ hand yet again and got the call up to AAA, where in just 3 games he already has 2 home runs.

2026 season AA ranks:

• .270 BA (17th)

• .344 OBP

• .568 SLG (7th)

• 21 HR (1st)

• 54 RBIs (1st)

• 137 WRC+ (7th)

• 17 SB (T-9th)

This development hasn’t just been fun to watch from a fan’s perspective, it should also be very encouraging for the Yankees organization to see someone who can adjust the way that he did from each call up to different levels. Garrett Martin knew what it meant to struggle in each division of MiLB and even in his first 2 years of college, but the adjustments he made to become an even better hitter than the year prior are not easy.

With Garrett Martin only one step away from reaching the big leagues, his story is far from over, but looking back on his career is something we never really do with players anymore. Martin went from being drafted out of high school, to undrafted free agent grinding his way back, to one of the most productive hitters in the upper minors.

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