As Rays officials headed to the opening of spring training this week, analyzing all aspects of their rotation — age, health, innings concerns, depth, best and worst possible outcomes, and more — they decided they’d feel better if they added another starter.
Someone with experience and past success would be ideal. The ability to eat innings would be great. And a bonus if they had a team-first attitude and clubhouse leadership qualities.
The Rays felt they got all of that and more in Nick Martinez, formally completing a deal Tuesday night that guarantees the right-hander a team-high $13 million for the coming season.
“Looking over our group, I think we felt it would be beneficial to add a veteran stabilizer, for lack of a better term, someone that can take the ball, somebody that can get you deep into games, keep you in a bunch of games and have some selflessness to them,” baseball operations president Erik Neander said.
“There’s certainly guys out there that fit the bill. But we felt like Nick was a particularly good fit.”
Martinez will turn 36 in August and is coming off a season where he went 11-14 with a 4.45 ERA for the Reds over 40 outings, including 26 starts. In working 165 ⅔ innings, he struck out 116, walked 42 and allowed a .254 batting average.
Neander said Martinez’s performance wasn’t much different than the previous two seasons, when he posted a 3.24 ERA over 105 games (though only 25 starts) for the Padres (6-4, 3.43 in 2023) and Reds, and the Rays have reasons to expect good things, especially having a set slot in the rotation.
“The bottom line, the pitch mix, the command, kind of the basic ingredients are in a very similar place to where they were the year prior, the year prior to that,” Neander said. “He takes exceptional care of himself. He probably, physically, is not nearly as old as his age.
“The foundation is very similar to where it’s been for a few years. He’s not a big strikeout guy. It is low walks. It’s a huge pitch mix with a lot of strikes, a lot of command and an ability to induce weak contact as well as anyone. And we’re going back into a park (Tropicana Field) where that tends to be pretty successful if you’ve got a clean defense behind it, would expect that we’ll have that.”
Pitcher Nick Martinez, who made $20.15 million last year from the Reds, will get a $9 million salary and is guaranteed at least the $4 million buyout on a $20 million mutual option for 2027. (Associated Press file)
The Rays plan for Martinez to join a rotation that includes returnees Ryan Pepiot and 2025 All-Star Drew Rasmussen; two-time All-Star Shane McClanahan, who has been sidelined since August 2023 due to injuries; and veteran free agent Steven Matz, who, like Martinez, has previously worked as both a starter and reliever.
With Pepiot and Rasmussen throwing career-high innings last season, McClanahan’s workload needing to be monitored, given his extended absence, and Matz, who turns 35 in May, having thrown only 76 ⅔ innings last year, the Rays would like to see Martinez make 30-32 starts.
But Neander said they also appreciate Martinez’s versatility and willingness to work in relief if needed (for example, being paired up with an innings-limited starter), his experience in doing so and his reputation for putting the team first.
“We might need some flexibility. We might need some guys to get a little creative with how they provide innings that impact our club,” Neander said.
“Having someone on the staff that cares so much about the people around him and has lived those experiences as successfully as any — which is a really difficult thing to do, to bounce back and forth (from starter to reliever) the way he has — has a lot of appeal.”
In many ways, the Rays feel Martinez is the right fit.
“The competitive makeup is second to none, the care for his teammates second to none,” Neander said. “The feedback on him and the quality of person is as good as you’re going to hear across the game.”
Martinez, who made $20.15 million last year from the Reds, will get a $9 million salary and is guaranteed at least the $4 million buyout on a $20 million mutual option for 2027.
To make room for Martinez on the 40-man roster, the Rays placed reliever Manny Rodriguez, who is projected to make a midseason return from right elbow surgery, on the 60-day injured list.
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