Old social media post gets J.D. Martinez in hot water

A 2013 Instagram post from Sox slugger J.D. Martinez sparked a social media scandal in a season that has been ripe with them.

BOSTON -- J.D. Martinez made headlines off the field entering the two-game series with the Marlins at Fenway Park this week.

The Red Sox outfielder became embroiled in a social media controversy centering around an Instagram post he made in 2013.

Martinez posted a picture of Adolf Hitler with a quote superimposed over the image – ‘To conquer a nation, First disarm it’s (sic) citizens.’ Martinez captioned the photo with a statement of his own – ‘This is why I always stay strapped! #the truth.’ Martinez said Tuesday the post was meant to show his support for the Second Amendment, and he was unaware that the quote is often falsely attributed to the former German chancellor and leader of the Nazi party by anti-gun control advocates.

“It was one of those things where I was really touched at the time,” Martinez said. “I saw it and I posted it. I had no intent to offend anyone. It was mostly just to state a point – a political point at the time.”

Martinez said he was attempting to draw a parallel between Hitler and Fidel Castro, the former prime minister and president of Cuba. Hitler allowed only non-Jewish Germans to own firearms during his time in power while Castro limited gun ownership in Cuba to active military personnel and state security agents. Both presided over brutal dictatorships responsible for causing widespread death and poverty among their citizens.

“Like I said, in a sense, I can kind of relate to it,” Martinez said. “My family can. We had to leave our country and people. My parents still talk about family members back in Cuba that I never got to meet. And it sucks.”

Martinez is among several baseball players to cause an uproar on social media. Milwaukee pitcher Josh Hader, Atlanta pitcher Sean Newcomb, White Sox pitcher Michael Kopech and Washington shortstop Trea Turner are among those who have had past and present Twitter posts expressing racist or homophobic views exposed. Unlike those players, Martinez’s post contained no specific slurs.

“Boston,” Martinez said. “That’s how it got out. I don’t know. It’s been up there for a while, and it’s the new hot thing to do now – dig and try to find something to make people look bad, I guess.”

When asked whether or not he believed his platform as a Red Sox player afforded him a platform to influence societal opinions, Martinez demurred.

“I don’t believe in that, in my opinion,” Martinez said. “We come here and we play baseball. This isn’t the environment to get into that.

“I’m a baseball player. That’s how I want people to view me. That’s how I want people to look at me. I’m not here to start a movement or start anything else. I play baseball and I want to win a championship. That’s all I’m here for.”

Though he held no formal meeting, Boston manager Alex Cora said he’d addressed the topic individually with Martinez and his players.

“We talked to the managers in the minor leagues and talked about everything that’s going on,” Cora said. “Where we’re at right now, as you know, people are going to start searching tweets from 10 years ago.

“I think players, they control their Twitter handles and Instagram. If it’s there, people are probably going to find it. Then they have to be responsible enough to explain why they did it.”