Cleveland Indians outfielder Leonys Martin will be released from the hospital today after battling a life-threatening bacterial infection, the team announced. Martin, who has been listed in stable condition, has been receiving treatment at the Cleveland Clinic.
Martin, 30, was discharged from intensive care on Thursday, but there is no set date for a return to baseball. Not much is known about his condition other than that an infection had "entered his blood and produced toxins that attacked his internal organs," according to Joe Noga of Cleveland.com.
Martin became ill on Aug. 7, 2018, and was admitted to Cleveland Clinic the following day. According to Sport's Illustrated, Indians president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti says Martin's condition reached the point of being life-threatening, but things took a turn for the better last week.
"It's beyond a relief, especially given where things were a week ago," Antonetti said. "I think it's important to remember we don't know. We're in uncharted waters. There's no precedent you can look back to and say, 'What does a return to activity look like?' It's very much going to continue to be day to day."
On Thursday, manager Terry Francona, bench coach Brad Mills and a group of Martin's teammates visited Martin at the Cleveland Clinic. "His spirits were really lifted," Antonetti said. "A bunch of the guys stopped by to visit. Tito and Millsie stopped by. He continues to draw energy from that and I know he's really motivated to get back healthy and begin building up his activity."
Martin was placed on the disabled list on August 9 with a non-baseball condition by Cleveland. He has only played in six games with the Indians after he was acquired in a trade with the Detroit Tigers on July 31. He is currently batting .255 with 11 home runs and 33 RBI.
The outfielder is in his eighth major league season and has played with the Rangers, Mariners, and Cubs before joining Detroit this past offseason. Cleveland has a 70-52 record and a 12–game lead over the Minnesota Twins in the AL Central.
"To think about the progress he's made over the past week, it's been nothing short of amazing," Antonetti added. "He'll have a series of follow up checks this week with doctors, just to continue to monitor his health. And then at some point, we'll begin to think about how we build up his activity and see where that leads us. ... It's been a really encouraging week."
Martin has expressed an interest in returning to the game as soon as possible if only for some light activities. Born in Cuba, he played for Villa Clara of the Cuban National Series, and for the Cuban national baseball team in international competitions, including the 2009 World Baseball Classic. In 2010, while in Taiwan for the World University Baseball Championship, Martín defected to become a Major League Baseball free agent. He signed with the Texas Rangers in 2011 and made his MLB debut later that season.