Cardinals righty Carlos Martinez is planning to work back from the injured list in a relief role, manager Mike Shildt told reporters including Mark Saxon of The Athletic (Twitter link). He’s working back to full health after experiencing shoulder weakness during camp.
This is a notable decision for an organization that has a good bit of cash invested in the 27-year-old hurler. ($11.5MM this year and at least $24MM thereafter.) But it was driven not by the club’s own preferences so much as Martinez’s feelings, according to Shildt.
That’s an interesting shift, as Martinez had made clear previously that he wished to return to the rotation. While there’s little question that Martinez’s greatest upside would be in a starting capacity, that hasn’t seemed to be a priority for the club. Even before the shoulder problems arose, there were suggestions from within the coaching staff that it may be desirable to have him in the bullpen.
Martinez has thrived in both roles for the most part, with a lifetime 3.36 ERA as a starter and 3.46 mark as a reliever. He was more effective last year from the pen, though it’s tough to draw any conclusions from such a small sample. Suffice to say that the power righty is capable of providing excellent output in any situation so long as he’s at full health.
Injury concerns have trailed Martinez of late, but he has mostly been available. He made 92 starts between 2015 and 2018 and even managed to throw 118 2/3 frames despite facing a variety of health issues last year. It seems the decision — at least for now — is that he’s likelier to be of use to the club in the near term if he limits himself to shorter outings.
It still isn’t known just when Martinez will be ready for activation, though it’ll likely come sooner given the decision to utilize him in relief. He has yet to embark upon a rehab assignment and that does not seem imminent, though the latest update on his condition was generally quite positive.
For the Cards, there’s certainly greater need in the rotation based upon the early results. Every member of the rotation is averaging over 4.5 earned runs per nine, while several pitchers are generating strong results in the relief corps. That picture could still change, of course, and there’s no doubt that Martinez will improve the relief unit quite a bit. It’ll be interesting to see just how he’s utilized — as a late-inning hurler, floating high-leverage arm, and/or multi-inning asset — once he’s back to full speed.
Good starters are much more difficult to come by than good relievers. I think they’re making a mistake.
Cards might sign (or should) a Dallas K or Gio G on a 1-2 year deal after this. Really to surge the rotation for the youngsters and for god sake.. add a lefty.
That’s because a reliever is just a failed starter.
But if Martinez can’t be effective as a starter, they don’t have much choice. He can be if he tries, but his head keeps getting in the way.
So much wrong with that comment
probably not a bad idea for health’s sake, but unless he becomes their closer, i dont see value in the move long-term.
Maybe he can go to the minors and learn to pitch left-handed.
Maybe we can trade a reliever or two for a starting LHP.
That’s one expensive reliever!
Really? That’s expensive? What does Wade Davis or Chapman make as relievers?
and Chapman isn’t anywhere close to what he used to be
Neither is Andrew Miller
Davis and Chapman are paid as elite closers, which they are.
Both are closers and they earn more. Carlos won’t be the Cards closer.
Andrew Miller makes .5 mil less than Carlos and I wouldn’t be suprised if Martinez ends up the closer. They don’t exactly have Edwin Diaz at the back of their pen
Yea you’re right they don’t…they just have this guy named Jordan Hicks who throws 100 plus and has a nasty slider
Yup lots of potential but not proven. If he struggles he won’t hold down the job. A proven guy would have a longer leash and would be less likely to lose their job
He seems to be doing just fine thus far….and on his way to being elite..better than Diaz probably
Try Tyler Chatwood
Welcome back to the pen C-mart. It’s not really where you belong now but I’m not making that decision.
i don’t really wanna see c-mart in the pen bit he also hasn’t shown mentaly that he deserves to be in the rotation i wanna see fire in my staters after a bad outing not “eh i’ll get em next time”. all i’m gonna say is you don’t like your role then prove you take your job seriously and you deserve to be in the rotation. this applies to all of the cards staff as well
Padres!!!
See what the cost is in terms of prospects. He would immediately become the Ace.
No thanks.
The Cardinals are a contender lol. Why would they trade him for prospects when he makes the big league club better now? Makes no sense.
Oh, big bad contenders now?
Copy that.
I wouldn’t gloat too much, 1 prospect in the top 100, none in the top 50.
But yeah who needs them anyway..
Yet they keep churning out impressive young pitchers. They seem to contend year after year. Never tanking on purpose. Right now 1st Place where they’ve finished more times than any other team in NL Central this century.
Are you saying that the Cardinals aren’t contenders? You’d likely only find Cub fans agreeing with you. I can understand not picking them to win the division but they are undoubtedly contenders.
And yeah a team that is trying to win now doesn’t often sell super low on a pitcher like CarMart. They’re a lot better off letting him try to help them win and if they want to they can trade him later once he builds up some value
Yeah, but, they graduated them all. They had Reyes, O’Neill, Hudson, Kelly, Bader, Weaver, Kaminsky, Piscotty, and Gonzales all in the past 5 years. They had 5 on the top 100 in 2017, just two years ago. Seems like the system is working quite well. The Cardinals find, develop, and graduate 2 WAR MLB talent better than almost any organization.
I understand that since you’re a Padres fan the most you really have had to root for is the prospect race, but it is indeed possible, no matter what the Cubs and Astros tell you, to have a successful farm system and a good major league club.
Not a doubt that the red birds did graduate their most recent prospects as you eluded to however, the arrogance of saying you don’t need anymore just because your big league club is good currently is comedy in my opinion, but okay.
Keep Martinez,
Can’t wait to see you guys in the playoffs.
Your teams not going to make the playoffs. I doubt if the cubs even finish at .500.
Century as in since 1995.
Pretty normal for farm system quality to vary inversely with the amount of recently-graduated talent.
The better farm systems recover quickly. If you go back the past 10 years, you see the Cards being one of those teams. Even more of a Cards signature, however, is to outproduce their rankings. thanks to guys under the radar like Allen Craig and Matt Carpenter.
No, as in since 2000 dummy
This franchise has become the most annoying and arrogant team in baseball. From Mozeliak to Molina to Wainwright to Carpenter. I actually enjoy watching them lose now. Until Mozeliak is gone, I will no longer be a fan.
Were you ever a fan to begin with? Comments like “I enjoy watching them lose” say otherwise.
Yes I was. Are you saying people can’t change their minds on sports teams? I used to be a huge Oakland Raider and Notre Dame fan. Now I don’t care about them at all. It’s called growing up and opening my eyes to the stupid and arrogant way a franchise is run. Many sports teams go through these stages with ownership, front office and/or bad coaches. I’m not a lemming or sheep. I don’t just follow blindly to what teams spin.
I love the take. if baseball teams are going to run like businesses and only care about how the product can be less expensive and make more money the fan can be a normal consumer and decide to take their business elsewhere. thia has nothing to do with fairweather fans. If baseball is a business, then we the fans need to act like smart consumers.
Sounds like a band wagoner … prob just happens to develop an admiration for whichever teams are competing for championships at the time … coincidence.
What about this decision to make Martinez a reliever makes the cardinals organization the most annoying and arrogant team in baseball? Or if it’s something not related to this article then what is it? I’m curious.
Don’t bother trying to make sense of that nonsense.
Bye Felicia
And yet, here you are, spouting off nonsense. I will guarantee you you will be back again to post about how you won’t be a fan “starting…now!” again.
You should charge rent because Mozeliak sure is taking up a lot of space in your head.
Then you never were a fan … good riddance
This post left out the most important piece of the article that Jenifer Langosch wrote today.
Martinez admitted that he he has been afraid to let himself throw uninhibited lately due to the possibility of another setback and injury. He says he had been feeling that way during his starts last year after his injuries and during spring training this year before being shut down. However, he admitted he did not feel this way during his relief appearances. Therefore the Cardinals are thinking it makes more sense for Martinez to pitch in relief to get the most out of him from a mental standpoint and physical standpoint combined.
I say let him build up his resumé as a reliever and then trade him to one of the many reliever needy teams. Don’t want a guy afraid to pitch.
He is likely to regain that confidence to let loose once he has some innings under his belt and maintains his health.
And he wonders why he keeps getting injured? Has anyone told him if he pitches like that he’s guaranteed to be injured?
Another good contract handed out by the cardinals. Why is this team so highly regarded these days?
Hindsight certainly helps your opinion. Signing Wong, and Dejong to extensions seems like it has worked well for them. pretty early in the season to write off Mikolas and Goldie deals as bad. If that is the way you are looking at it you would be sky high on the Fowler contract as he is playing center at least acceptably and hitting and getting on base similar to his 17 season. The Cardinals do pretty well in the draft considering the place they are drafting from. The hardest season to watch for me as a fan of the teams in my adult life they went on to win the world series with a Rotation headlined by a 15 win Chris Carpenter and a 12 win Jeff Suppan and barely making the playoffs with 82 wins. Seems to me like they have been doing something right and doing so for a while.
Look, a good pitcher is a good pitcher regardless of role, so wherever C-Mart slides in is fine with me if it’s going to make the Cards better.
Hopefully he can be 2018 Collin McHugh/ 2016 Travis Wood and actually do something out of the bullpen. I see him as the Cards closer
sometime this year.
Makes sense to me. Keep him on a tight leash and expectations low upon return. Doesn’t mean he won’t start again if things go well and health is sustained.