Cincinnati Reds Add Versatile Nick Martinez to Pitching Staff

Martinez strengthens Reds pitching staff in a lot of ways

The Cincinnati Reds continued adding to their pitching staff late Wednesday night as they signed right hander Nick Martinez.

According to Jeff Passan, the terms of the deal are for two years, $26 million. Martinez has the ability to opt out after year one. This is consistent with what MLB Trade Rumors predicted Martinez’ contract would look like as he is a unique pitching talent.

Martinez spent the last two season with the San Diego Padres after having not pitched in the majors since 2017 with the Texas Rangers. During those two seasons with the Friars, Martinez appeared in 110 games, starting 19 of them, and tossed 216 2/3 innings. He had a 3.45 ERA during that time.

This past season he showed a quality the Reds pitching staff desperately needs: the ability to induce ground balls. Martinez had a ground ball rate of 53.8%! That would be far and away the best ground ball rate on the team.

According to Statcast he is adept at limiting the quality of contact against him. He is in the top 2% of the league in average exit velocity against (84.7 MPH) and the top 5% of hard hit rate allowed (29.9%).

Martinez also boasts five pitches that he throws between 13% and 28% of the time. He has a 4-seam fastball, sinking fastball, cut fastball, curveball, and changeup. He throws his changeup the most and has a 46.5% whiff rate with that pitch.

Martinez will fit perfectly on this pitching staff. He can be a starter when the Reds need someone, he can be a multi-inning relief pitcher when one of the Reds starters has a short outing, and he even has some saves in his career. Martinez is the Reds Swiss Army pitcher.

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