The Rays and Cubs have completed their Aug. 30 Jose Martinez trade, per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times (Twitter link). The Rays acquired cash rather than a player to be named later to round out the deal. The initial trade was announced as Martinez to the Cubs in exchange for minor league infielder Pedro Martinez and a PTBNL or cash.
The trade didn’t pan out as the Cubs had hoped, as Martinez appeared in 10 games for them and went 0-for-21 with a walk. A longtime division rival with the Cardinals, the 32-year-old Martinez struggled immensely in 2020, hitting just .182/.265/.295 in a combined 98 plate appearances between the two teams. The Cubs still control him through 2022 via arbitration, although his 2020 struggles make him a clear non-tender candidate.
As for the Rays, they picked up the younger, 19-year-old Martinez who now ranks as their No. 21 prospect at MLB.com and Baseball America as well as their No. 31 prospect at FanGraphs. The lack of a minor league season makes it impossible to really evaluate the younger Martinez’s 2020 season. That said, he posted a .311/.388/.437 slash through 233 plate appearances back in 2019 and adds some depth to the lower levels of one of MLB’s best farms.
What a waste that deal was for Chicago.
Yep, he definitely looks like he’ll be non-tendered.
He played for the Cubs like he couldn’t care less. He probably didn’t want to leave Tampa.
I feel Martinez could of really helped Tampa win the World Series this season even though he is so limited defensively. He definitely has some pop in his bat.
The fizz went flat after 2018.
The fizz that went flat was the only bat in the Cardinals line up that got a hit off the Nats in the ’19 NLCS
Didn’t work out at all for the Cubs. They traded a blocked player though for someone who tore them up in September of ’19 BENCH MAFIA
How was Martinez blocked? He’s nowhere near major league ready, and I’m sure the Cubs could find a roster spot post-Covid somewhere in the minor leagues to get him ABs.
But he really doesnt. As a Cards fan I was very frustrated by his play for the whole time he was in STL. Even in the minors he wasn’t ever really a power guy.
His bat is massively over rated. He went 0-21 with the Cubs but yeah he could have hit Dodger pitching LOL.
Martinez sukked for the Rays. I realize that the team slumped at the worst time, but he would not have helped.
Martinez is beyond washed up, he better be non-tendered with the Cubs laughably claiming they have no money even for good players.
I’m just glad Pedro is back and trying out some new positions. Looks young and rejuvenated.
The old Pedro split in half. The other half is trying to regain weight for TV.
Incredible that the Rays got all-world Arozarena AND HOF pitcher-turned-infielder Pedro Martinez out of that Liberatore deal. No wonder they won the pennant
That FO just sees things other don’t
Kind of the way the Dodgers trotted out the likes of Chris Taylor, Max Muncy, Justin Turner, Enrique Hernandez and a couple others. Those two front offices have the ability to either turn guys around or like said above see things other organizations are just blind too. Muncy in particular used to play for another front office with Oakland who usually catches some of these but even he fell to the Dodgers and broke out and got a nice deal and now a ring. Kudos!, jealous it’s not my teams front office more often but things are turning around.
Hey I would have never voted for him if I knew he wasn’t capable of this!
LOL I just noticed Jose Martinez was 0-21 for the Cubs last year! Yikes. The guy they gave up seems like a decent hitter too. Hit .311 in 2019!
These random Cardinals players that emerge out of thin air disappear into thin air just as quickly especially if they leave St. Louis.
Voit and Arozerena say hi.
This is call the Randy Arozarena trade now.
Why?
Ahh the old classic Martinez swap for Martinez
As Red Sox fans know, Theo has such success with Rays players…Carl Crawford, Julio Lugo…
And if Martinez ranks #21 in the loaded Rays system, he’d probably rank #10-15 in the Cubs..
When I saw this headline on my phone I thought good, the Cubs traded him away already.
Did the Cubs lay-off ALL of their scouts last year? Brutal trade for Theo.
Epic Fail
This trade never made sense. Pedro Martinez ranked as a top 30 prospect by Fangraphs at the start of the season. Jose Martinez, at best, is a solid platoon bat who’s best position is DH. Why would you trade any sort of top prospect for a platoon DH bat that was really struggling?
No way Jose used to hit really well as a Cardinal when they played the Cubs, just not in a Cubs uniform.
Cubs thought he could recreate some of his magic playing mostly NL Central foes. It ended up bad but sometimes that’s the way it goes.
Guy can’t field and his hitting has gone away a bit but I wouldn’t doubt him getting a minors deal somewhere and cracking a roster as a ph-dh. Plus he’s known as a good guy in the clubhouse and fun guy to be around.
Another pointless trade. They trade for him and send him to the minors just to give a up a young prospect.