Orelvis Martinez crushes homer in first High-A game, CJ Van Eyk twirls gem

There’s an increasing amount of hype building around the Toronto Blue Jays’ 19-year-old shortstop prospect Orelvis Martinez, who just made his High-A debut last night with the Vancouver Canadians.

It doesn’t appear that that hype is going to slow down anytime soon, as Martinez crushed his first homer as a member of the C’s in his first game last night.

Martinez has been playing with the Dunedin Blue Jays in low-A ball, but it quickly became apparent that he deserved a shot at the next level. Through 326 plate appearances, Martinez had a .279 batting average and an OPS of .942 to go along with 19 homers.

According to ESPN’s Jeff Passan, “everyone was asking” Toronto for Martinez at the trade deadline, but the Jays elected to hang onto their number four ranked prospect.

In addition to Martinez’ stellar debut, another prospect who fans have been told to keep an eye on threw five shutout innings on the bump.

In his first season of pro ball, 22-year-old CJ Van Eyk has seen some ups and downs.

Through 64.1 innings pitched, Van Eyk has an ERA of 6.44 and a record of 3-5. He has increasingly gotten more comfortable as the season has went on, and last night was a true testament to that.

In his five scoreless innings of work, Van Eyk gave up two hits and two walks while striking out three batters. A trio of relievers from the bullpen came in to close out the rest of the game and put a bow on a successful debut for Orelvis Martinez and a stellar pitching performance from Van Eyk.

The C’s are back in action tonight in Hillsboro, Oregon.