Pedro Martínez
Pedro Jaime Martínez is a Dominican-American former professional baseball starting pitcher who played in Major League Baseball from to for five teams—most notably the Boston Red Sox from to.
As of 2023, Martínez's record of 219 wins and 100 losses places him tenth-highest in winning percentage in major league history and fifth-highest among pitchers with more than 2,000 career innings pitched. Martínez ended his career with an earned run average of 2.93, among the lowest ever by a pitcher with at least 2,500 innings pitched since 1920. He reached the 3,000 strikeout mark in fewer innings than any pitcher except Randy Johnson and Max Scherzer; Martínez is the only pitcher other than Scherzer to compile over 3,000 career strikeouts with fewer than 3,000 innings pitched in his career. As of 2023, Martínez's career strikeout rate of 10.04 per nine innings ranks sixth all-time among pitchers with over 1,500 innings.
An eight-time All-Star, Martínez was at his peak from to, establishing himself as one of the most dominant pitchers in baseball history. He won three Cy Young Awards and was runner-up twice, posting a cumulative record of 118–36 with a 2.20 ERA, while leading his league in ERA five times and in winning percentage and strikeouts three times each. In, Martínez was runner-up for the American League Most Valuable Player Award, after winning the pitching Triple Crown with a 23–4 record, 2.07 ERA, and 313 strikeouts, and—along with Johnson—joined Gaylord Perry in the rare feat of winning the Cy Young Award in both the American and National Leagues. He recorded the second-lowest single-season Fielding Independent Pitching in the live ball era, the second-lowest single-season WHIP total in major league history, and the highest single-season Adjusted ERA+ in major league history. Although his performance suffered a steep decline in 2004, Martínez ended the season memorably by helping the Red Sox end a long drought in winning their first World Series title in 86 years.
Officially listed at and, Martínez was unusually small for a modern-day power pitcher, and is believed to have been somewhat smaller than his officially listed height and weight. In his early 30s, injuries began to keep him off the field to an increasing extent, with his appearances and success dropping off sharply in his final seasons. Modern sabermetric analysis has strongly highlighted Martínez's achievements. As of 2023, his career strikeout-to-walk ratio, WHIP, and adjusted ERA+ are among the highest in major league history. Martínez dominated while pitching most often in a hitter-friendly ballpark and facing some of the toughest competition during the steroid era, which is generally thought to have favored batters. Many consider Martínez to be one of the greatest pitchers in major league history. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2015 in his first year of eligibility, joining Juan Marichal as the second Dominican to be enshrined; his number was retired by the Red Sox in a ceremony held two days after his Hall induction.
Early life
Pedro Jaime Martínez was born on October 25, 1971, in the Dominican Republic in the Santo Domingo suburb of Manoguayabo. He was the fifth of six siblings living in a palm wood house with a tin roof and dirt floors. His father, Pablo Jaime Abreu, worked odd jobs. His mother, Leopoldina Martínez, worked for traditionally wealthy families, washing their clothes. When Martínez was old enough to work, he held a job as a mechanic.Martínez did not have enough money to afford baseballs, so he improvised with oranges. His older brother Ramón, was pitching at a Los Angeles Dodgers baseball camp in the Dominican Republic. As a young teenager, Martínez carried his brother's bags at the camp. One day at the camp, Ramón Martínez clocked his 14-year-old brother's pitches at between 78 and 80 miles per hour.
Martínez debuted professionally with the Tigres del Licey of the Dominican Winter League during the 1989–90 season. He then pitched briefly for the Azucareros del Este, before rejoining Licey in 1991–92 in a nine-player transaction that included George Bell, José Offerman and Julio Solano, among others.
Professional career
Minor leagues
Martínez was originally signed by the Dodgers as an amateur free agent in 1988. In his first season in the minors he was assigned to the Great Falls Dodgers where he worked with coach Guy Conti to develop a circle changeup which Conti had learned from Johnny Podres. Conti also worked with the young pitcher on his English and helped him assimilate to the United States; Martínez later described Conti as his "white daddy." As a minor leaguer in the Dodgers farm system, he was a highly touted prospect although some talent evaluators took issue with his "poise" despite his having a "great fastball and circle-changeup."Los Angeles Dodgers (1992–1993)
Martínez made his MLB debut on September 24, 1992, for the Dodgers against the Cincinnati Reds, working two scoreless innings of relief. He made his first start for the Dodgers on September 30, taking the loss while giving up two runs in a 3–1 loss to the Reds.Although Martínez's brother Ramón, then a star pitcher for the Dodgers, declared that his brother was an even better pitcher than he, the younger Martínez was thought by manager Tommy Lasorda too small to be an effective starting pitcher at the MLB level; Lasorda used Pedro Martínez almost exclusively as a relief pitcher. Lasorda was not the first to question Martínez's stature and durability; in the minor leagues, the then-135-pound pitcher was threatened with a $500 fine if he was caught running. Martínez turned in a strong 1993 season as the Dodgers' setup man, going 10–5 with a 2.61 ERA and 119 strikeouts, in 65 games; his 107 innings led all NL relievers.
Montreal Expos (1994–1997)
With the Dodgers in need of a second baseman after a contract dispute with Jody Reed, Martínez was traded to the Montreal Expos for Delino DeShields before the 1994 season. It was with the Expos that Martínez developed into one of the top pitchers in baseball. Despite possessing a live fastball, he had difficulty maintaining control. It was during a bullpen session that manager Felipe Alou encouraged him to modify his primary grip on the fastball from two-seam to four-seam. The transformation was dramatic: the fastball − already among the fastest in the game − now was thrown with near-impeccable control and break that routinely overwhelmed hitters. On April 13, 1994, Martínez took a perfect game through innings until throwing a brushback pitch at Reggie Sanders that led Sanders to immediately charge the mound, starting a bench-clearing brawl. Martínez ended up with a no-decision in the game, which the Expos eventually won 3–2.On June 3, 1995, Martínez pitched nine perfect innings in a game against the San Diego Padres, before giving up a hit in the bottom of the 10th inning. He was immediately removed from the game, and was the winning pitcher in Montreal's 1–0 victory.
In 1996, during a game against the Philadelphia Phillies, Mike Williams attempted to hit Martínez with retaliatory pitches for an earlier hit batter but failed with two consecutive attempts. After the second attempt, Martínez charged the mound, and started a bench-clearing fight.
In 1997, Martínez posted a 17–8 record for the Expos, and led the league in half a dozen pitching categories, including a 1.90 ERA, 305 strikeouts and 13 complete games pitched, while becoming the only Expo ever to win the National League Cy Young Award. The 13 complete games were tied for the second-highest single-season total in the modern era of baseball since Martínez's career began. However, this 1997 total is by far the highest in Martínez's career, as he only completed more than five games in one other season. Martínez was the first right-handed pitcher to reach 300 strikeouts with an ERA under 2.00 since Walter Johnson in 1912.
Boston Red Sox (1998–2004)
Approaching free agency, Martínez was traded to the Boston Red Sox in November 1997 for Carl Pavano and Tony Armas Jr. Martínez was subsequently signed to a six-year, $75 million contract by Red Sox general manager Dan Duquette, at the time the largest ever awarded to a pitcher. Martínez paid immediate dividends in 1998, compiling a 19–7 record and finishing second in the American League in ERA, WHIP, strikeouts, and Cy Young Award voting.In 1999, Martínez finished 23–4 with a 2.07 ERA and 313 strikeouts in innings across 31 games. He led the entire major leagues with strikeouts per nine innings and strikeout-to-walk ratios of 13.20 and 8.46, respectively. His Fielding Independent Pitching of 1.39 was the lowest single-season total in the major leagues since 1910 among pitchers who threw more than 35 innings. The second best FIP in baseball in 1999 was Randy Johnson's 2.76, and that year, no one else in the American League had a FIP below 3.25. Martínez also became just the ninth modern pitcher to record a second 300-strikeout season, along with Randy Johnson, Nolan Ryan, Sandy Koufax, Curt Schilling, Walter Johnson, Sam McDowell, J. R. Richard, and Rube Waddell. An anomaly among power pitchers, Martínez is the only 20th-century pitcher to notch 300 strikeouts in a season without being at least six feet tall.
Martínez unanimously won his second Cy Young Award and finished second in the AL Most Valuable Player ballot. The MVP result was controversial, as Martínez received the most first-place votes of any player, but was omitted from the ballots of two sportswriters, New York's George King and Minneapolis' LaVelle Neal. Buster Olney, writing for The New York Times, mused that the sentiment that pitchers should not be considered MVP candidates due to the existence of the pitcher-specific Cy Young Award may have cost Martínez the victory. King later wrote in The New York Post that he left Martínez off of his ballot because he believed that, since they only appear in a fraction of their team's games, starting pitchers should only be considered for the Cy Young Award. "It really made us all look very dumb", Olney later said. "People were operating under different rules. The question of eligibility is a very basic thing. People were determining eligibility for themselves." Texas Rangers catcher Iván Rodríguez narrowly won the award over Martínez, by a margin of 252 points to 239. Rodríguez had been included on all 28 ballots. When asked about the result by WEEI-FM radio in January 2012, Martínez said, "I'm not afraid to say that the way that George King and Mr. LaVelle Neal III went about it was unprofessional."
Between April and May 1999, Martínez struck out 10 or more batters in seven consecutive starts. Between August 1999 and April 2000, Martínez achieved the same feat in 10 consecutive starts, averaging more than 15 strikeouts per nine innings during the latter streak. In 1999, Martínez recorded a strikeout in 40 consecutive innings, which at the time was a major league record. For his career, Martínez compiled 15 or more strikeouts in a game 10 times, which is tied with Roger Clemens for the third-most such games in history behind Nolan Ryan's 27 and Randy Johnson's 29.
Martínez was named the AL Pitcher of the Month in April, May, June, and September 1999—four times in a single season. Martínez punctuated his dominance in the 1999 All-Star Game at Fenway Park. He struck out National League players Barry Larkin, Larry Walker, Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, and Jeff Bagwell in two innings pitched, earning All-Star Game MVP for his performance. It was the first time that a pitcher had struck out the first four batters to start an All-Star Game. Martínez later said that the 1999 All-Star break was especially memorable for him because he was able to meet the members of the MLB All-Century Team and get an autograph from Ted Williams.
Martínez was a focal point of Boston's 1999 playoff series against the Cleveland Indians. Starting the series opener, he was forced out of the game after four shutout innings due to a strained back with the Red Sox up 2–0. The Red Sox, however, lost the game 3–2. With the series tied at two games apiece, Martínez was too injured to start the fifth and final game. However, neither team's starter was effective, and by the middle of the fourth inning, the game was tied 8–8. At this point, Martínez entered the game as an emergency relief option. He pitched six no-hit innings, striking out eight and walking three, as the Red Sox won the deciding game of the series 12–8. In the American League Championship Series, Martínez pitched seven shutout innings to beat the New York Yankees in Game 3, handing the soon-to-be World Series champions their only loss of the 1999 postseason.
Martínez followed up 1999 with another excellent season in 2000 en route to his third Cy Young Award. His ERA of 1.74 was the lowest American League total since 1978. The total was about a third of that year's park-adjusted league ERA, resulting in an adjusted ERA+ of 291, the second highest single-season total in major league history among pitchers who threw more than 200 innings. Roger Clemens' 2000 ERA of 3.70 was the second lowest in the AL, but it was still more than double that of Martínez's.
Martínez's record was 18–6. In his six losses, he recorded 60 strikeouts, eight walks, and 30 hits allowed in 48 innings, with a 2.44 ERA and a 0.79 WHIP, while averaging eight innings per start. Martínez's ERA in his losing games was lower than the best ERA in the National League across all games. Martínez's first loss of the year was a 1–0 complete game in which he had 17 strikeouts and one walk. All of Martínez's losses were quality starts, and he pitched eight or more innings in all but one of his losses. Martínez received two runs or fewer of run support in 10 of his starts ; in such games, his ERA was a minuscule 1.25 with 4 complete games and 2 shutouts, but his win–loss record was 4–5.
Martínez's WHIP in 2000 was 0.74, the second lowest total in major league history behind George Walker in 1940. However, Walker's record came in a season in which he only pitched 49 innings, whereas Martínez pitched 217 innings in 2000. Martínez struck out an American League-leading 284 batters while only walking 32, thereby breaking his own record for the highest single-season strikeout-to-walk ratio in American League history. Martínez held opposing hitters to a slash line of.167/.213/.259 and recorded more than twice as many strikeouts as hits allowed. When opposing teams had runners in scoring position, hitters' production against Martínez was reduced to a slash line of.133/.188/.219.
Across 1999 and 2000, Martínez allowed 288 hits and 69 walks in 430 innings, with 597 strikeouts, a 0.83 WHIP, and a 1.90 ERA. Some baseball pundits believe that given the era in which Martínez pitched—during the peak of the Steroid Era, in a league with a designated hitter, with hitter-friendly Fenway Park as his home field—his performance represents the peak for any pitcher in baseball history.
Though he continued his dominance when healthy, carrying a sub-2.00 ERA to the midpoint of the following season, Martínez spent much of 2001 on the disabled list with a rotator cuff injury as the Red Sox slumped to a poor finish. Martínez finished with a 7–3 record, a 2.39 ERA, and 163 strikeouts in 116 innings. Healthy in 2002, he rebounded to lead the league with a 2.26 ERA, 0.923 WHIP and 239 strikeouts, while going 20–4. However, that season's American League Cy Young Award narrowly went to 23-game winner Barry Zito of the Oakland Athletics, despite Zito's higher ERA, higher WHIP, fewer strikeouts, and lower winning percentage. Martínez became the first pitcher since the introduction of the Cy Young Award to lead his league in each of those four statistics without winning the award. Martínez's record was 14–4 in 2003. He led the league in ERA, ERA+, and WHIP for the fifth time each and finished second to league leader Esteban Loaiza by a single strikeout. Martínez came in third for the 2003 Cy Young Award, which went to Toronto's Roy Halladay.
Despite an uncharacteristically high 3.90 ERA in 2004, Martínez went 16–9, ranked second in the AL in strikeouts and finished fourth in Cy Young voting. The Red Sox won the American League's wild-card berth, and Martínez pitched effectively in the playoffs. He earned the win in Game 2 of the ALDS, and in the ALCS, he recorded his only loss of the postseason as well as a no-decision. In Game 3 of the World Series, he pitched seven shutout innings and retired the last 14 batters he faced. The Red Sox won the World Series in four games, securing their first championship in 86 years.
Martínez finished his Red Sox career with a 117–37 record, a 2.52 ERA, a 190 ERA+, and 1683 strikeouts in innings. He finished in the top four in Cy Young Award balloting in six of his seven years in Boston, winning twice.