The Padres announced that the contract of right-hander Adrian Martinez has been selected to the club’s 40-man roster. The early move ensures that Martinez won’t be selected in the Rule 5 Draft, as teams have until November 19 to finalize their 40-man rosters in advance of the Rule 5 (which takes place in the second week of December).
Martinez’s early career was slowed by a Tommy John surgery, but he returned to action in 2017 and slowly built up innings before his progress was against stalled by the canceled 2020 minor league season. Making his Double-A debut in 2021, Martinez looked excellent in posting a 2.34 ERA, 25.4% strikeout rate, and 7.3% walk rate over 80 2/3 innings in San Antonio. The righty didn’t look as good in 44 1/3 innings of Triple-A ball (5.28 ERA), though most of that damage came in Martinez’s first two starts at the higher level. After those initial two rough outings, Martinez settled down and delivered a 3.47 ERA over his final seven starts.
The breakout campaign got Martinez on the radar of prospect evaluators, as Baseball America ranks him 26th in the Padres’ farm system and MLB Pipeline slots him in the 29th spot on their listing. More importantly, Martinez now looks like a candidate to make his Major League debut sometime in 2022. He’ll get more seasoning at Triple-A to begin the season, and might then emerge as a relief candidate or perhaps as a rotation fill-in or spot starter in the event of an injury to one of San Diego’s regular starters.
“The righty didn’t look as good in 44 1/3 innings of Triple-A ball (5.28 ERA), though most of that damage came in Martinez’s first two starts at the higher level. After those initial two rough outings, Martinez settled down and delivered a 3.47 ERA over his final seven starts.”
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This is a pattern I often see. Happens to pitchers and hitters.
Consideration has be be given that especially at the AAA and AA levels, the better players are promoted as the season progresses. So there is a very good possibility that lineups Martinez was pitching to in AAA later in the year were weaker, as the better hitters were moved up to the majors.
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Generalized statistics can often be misleading. Have to take into account the changing variables
Part of it is also upon switching you are quickly thrown into better competition then you adjust
AAA El Paso is akin to pitching on the moon. Hitter’s paradise, pitcher’s graveyard.
He might have been making the adjustment.
I have always said we should never send our better pitching prospects to El Paso.
Gore should not pitch there again.
So what if the PCL is a launch pad. ALL pitchers have to deal with it. That’s why you don’t look at individual stats. A better measure of performance is to look at how an individual player compares to the LEAGUE.
For example, instead of just saying a pitcher with an ERA of 5.35 sucks, look at the league leaders and you may find the top pitcher in the league has an ERA of 4.80, and that 5.35 may actually be in the top 10 for the league.
You also have to look at the peripheral stats.
There’s a reason minor league stats don’t mean squat.
There’s a span of less than 2 weeks between Martinez’s first 2 starts and the first of his last 7……
Probably not due to significantly weaker lineups.
Better prospects from AA also get moved up as AAA guys flow inro the big leagues at years end. Additionally with their no longer being 40 man rosters in September I think that makes the point even weaker.
AAA is a lot better than AA, which is a lot better than A.
Jeezus.
Dang I hoped they were talking about Nebraska’s quarterback
@redsox. Being from Nebraska (actually born in Lincoln) I am a rare NOT Husker football fan. I do occasionally watch part of a game on cable tv and from what I’ve seen many times is Adrian Martinez just slide and down himself time and time again before taking a hit. That’s nothing to brag about. He will be all but forgotten about in several years in Nebraska just like the last quarterback (Taylor Martinez). Nothing special really he can run a little that’s about it.
Good move. Interesting prospect for sure. Another thing i noticed was that theres still room for one more prospect, it’s Mackenzie Gore for sure. Maybe they add another prospect, who knows, if they outright matt Strahm or Luis castillo
I haven’t given up entirely on Gore, but I have very low expectations at this stage… it may ultimately click for him, but his prospect status is dimming steadily
If healthy, by mid-2023, Gore will be a MLB starter with a sub-4.25 era. Not the splashy number one starter once hoped for, but more than good enough for a middle of rotation guy.
@CoachDan Gore will be their ace no later than 2024. Bear witness.
TINSTAAPP.
Need to clear room for Gore and Steven Wilson.
Martinez was actually eligible for minor league free agency if not on the 40-man. And the deadline for that is earlier than the deadline for Rule 5 protection, hence him being placed on the 40-man earlier.
I thought this was the Nebraska QB for a second
Isn’t this little scrub supposed to be playing football at Nebraska??
Actually, this may explain why he’s been throwing interceptions…….He’s been working as a pitcher on the side.
@Royals. It’s what Adrian Martinez the Nebraska QB does best. Interceptions and down himself with his little slides before taking a hit….
Who?
Exactly, the cat sounds like a San Diego Padre already.