First eligible to be elected into the Hall of Fame in the 2010 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting, and with 75% of the vote required for induction, Martínez received 36.2% of the vote. While some sports writers felt that his batting numbers do not overcome the one-dimensional aspect of his career as a DH, others have compared this to the specialty of closers whose contribution to their teams victories resides on working one inning to preserve an advantage and the fact that these late inning relievers are not involved in other facets of the game such as hitting and base running. By the 2018 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting, his ninth year on the ballot, Martínez's vote total increased to 70.4%. The 2019 ballot, his last chance for election by the Baseball Writers' Association of America, elected him to the Hall of Fame, appearing on 85.4% of the ballots cast. He became the second player to enter the Hall of Fame as a Mariner, after Ken Griffey Jr., and the sixth player to be elected in his final year of eligibility, after Red Ruffing, Joe Medwick, Ralph Kiner, Jim Rice, and Tim Raines. Incidentally, he entered the Hall with the aforementioned Rivera, who was elected in his 1st year of eligibility, along with the late Roy Halladay (1st ballot, posthumous).