Pedro Martinez

Lore & Background

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 (ERA) 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 or Clayton Kershaw 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 1997 to 2003, establishing himself as one of the most dominant pitchers in baseball history. He won three Cy Young Awards (1997, 1999, 2000) and was runner-up twice (1998, 2002), posting a cumulative record of 118–36 (.766) with a 2.20 ERA, while leading his league in ERA five times and in winning percentage and strikeouts three times each.

In 1999, Martínez was runner-up for the American League (AL) 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 (a feat since accomplished by Randy Johnson, Roger Clemens, Roy Halladay, Max Scherzer, and Blake Snell). He recorded the second-lowest single-season Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP) in the live ball era (1.39 in 1999), the second-lowest single-season WHIP total in major league history (0.737 in 2000), and the highest single-season Adjusted ERA+ in major league history (291, also in 2000).

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 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) and 170 pounds (77 kg), 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.

Reader's Guide

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. 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.'

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.