TODAY: The Diamondbacks officially announced the deal, which per the club’s announcement also includes a conditional club option for the 2032 season. According to Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic, the conditional option is worth $3MM and triggers if Martinez has elbow surgery at any point in the deal or spends a certain number of days on the injured list.
March 21: Right-hander Justin Martínez and the Diamondbacks have reportedly agreed to a contract extension, pending a physical. The deal will pay him $18MM over five years, with a couple of club options as well. He’ll get a $2MM signing bonus and a $1.5MM salary this year. He’ll then make salaries of $2MM, $3MM, $4MM and $5.5MM in the remaining guaranteed years. The 2030 club option is valued at $7MM followed by a $9MM option for 2031. It can max out at $39MM via escalators and those options. The guaranteed portion of the deal covers his remaining pre-arbitration and arbitration seasons, while the options give the Diamondbacks two potential extra years of control.
Martínez, 23, has a limited major league track record but has impressed in that time. He had a rough debut in 2023, allowing 14 earned runs in a small sample of ten innings. But he firmly established himself last year. He tossed 72 2/3 innings over 64 appearances for the D’Backs, allowing just 2.48 earned runs per nine innings. His 11.7% walk rate was definitely on the high side but he struck out 29.5% of batters faced and got grounders on 58.9% of balls in play.
He accomplished all that with an impressive arsenal, turning his Statcast page into a sea of red. His four-seam fastball and sinker both averaged over 100 miles per hour with Martínez also mixing in a splitter and a slider. He earned seven holds and eight saves last year, cementing himself as a key leverage arm for the Snakes.
Given that eye-popping performance, it’s understandable that the Snakes would look to lock him up. It’s also easy to see why Martínez might prefer to lock up some life-changing money now. He had just converted from the outfield to the mound in 2018 prior to being signed as an amateur out of the Dominican Republic. He got a $50K bonus, relatively modest compared to some of the multi-million-dollar bonuses high-profile prospects get. He has struggled with control problems throughout his minor league career and also had Tommy John surgery in 2021.
While Martínez is surely confident in his obvious talents, his trajectory has been more rocky than many other young players. That perhaps made him less likely to bet on himself than a player who already had millions in the bank and a smooth ride to the majors.
The deal is roughly in line with previous pacts for pre-arbitration relievers, as shown on MLBTR’s Contract Tracker. Emmanuel Clase got $20MM over five years from the Guardians going into the 2022 season. Clase then had between one and two years of service time, as Martínez does now. In both cases, the player locked up guaranteed money for their pre-arb and arb years, while giving up two free agent seasons via options. The Clase deal is tops for a reliever in this service bracket with Martínez coming in just below him.
Clase is an apt comparison for Martínez and a good illustration of what the Diamondbacks are hoping for. Clase was clearly a talented pitcher but had some uncertainty after missing the 2020 season due to a PED suspension. He pitched his first full season in 2021 and posted a 1.29 ERA over 71 appearances. The Guardians banked on Clase repeating that kind of performance going forward, a bet that has paid off. Clase has emerged as one of the best closers in baseball with a 1.72 ERA over the first three years of that deal.
The bar doesn’t need to be that high for Martínez. Even by the end of the deal, his salary stays fairly modest. Decent setup pitchers like Paul Sewald, Yimi García and Tommy Kahnle signed deals with salaries in the $7-8MM range this winter. That means Martínez will be a bargain even if he’s producing in the realm of those guys. But clearly, the ceiling is quite high and the Diamondbacks are hoping Martínez is a key part of the bullpen for years to come.
What remains to be seen is how Martínez will be utilized in the short term. Manager Torey Lovullo said this week, in video relayed by Alex Weiner of Arizona Sports, that he would likely not name a strict closer. He has two key lefties in A.J. Puk and Joe Mantiply, as well as righties Martínez and Kevin Ginkel. Based on Lovullo’s comments, he seems likely to put his pitchers in optimal platoon settings, at least until a more clear hierarchy emerges.
Moises Fabian of Mega 97.9 in New York first reported the details in Spanish, relaying the $18MM guarantee over five years and the club options valued at $7MM and $9MM. Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic later reported the same details in English. Ari Alexander of KPRC 2 reported the specific annual salaries.
Photos courtesy of Rob Schumacher, Imagn Images.
Score! Our closer either now or in the future.
Great for both sides. Martinez guarantees himself a good amount of money if his arm explodes and Arizona locks up a potentially elite reliever for a long time at a low price.
Never say no to your first fortune, especially when you’re from Latin America where you can easily live off the interest for the rest of your life.
That’s not BS.
Bold move for a reliever.
A reliever that averages 100+ mph on two fastball types and has two plus breaking pitches is generally not a bad bet.
Saves and strikeouts raise arb salaries in a hurry, and he projects to get a good number of both over his contract.
Keep in mind, 90% of plate appearances against Martinez last year resulted in a SO or GB. Granted, only one year. But when you look at his stuff, it feels like a good bet that it’s not a mirage.
They’re cost-controlling his arbitration years for $16.5M and adding two options for $16M. It’s a little rich on the guaranteed dollars, given reliever volatility, but there’s no club in baseball that can’t afford a $3.3M AAV hit a year, even if he never pitches again. A prudent move, IMO.
Considering the price tag, even with how volatile relievers can be, it’s an affordable contract for the Diamondbacks and some financial security for Justin.
I bet they looked at his hr/9 rate last season and will slowly transition him to closer.
After the Tanner Scott deal, where a guy who has a better-than-league-avg ERA in three out of eight seasons, and gets something like 250k/ip for the next four years,every team should really just pick one guy and give them the Martinez deal. If anything goes awry, okay, at least he’s Evan White and not Anthony Rendon. If he works out (we think he will here in AZ), he’s a huge bargain and a great trade chip at almost any point over the next seven years. Great job Dbacks.
It’s a pity the Jays don’t seem particularly interested in doing this kind of thing. You’d think even more than the Braves they’d want to be gambling on very early extensions.
Love these types of deals. Congrats to Martinez for being set for life and hopefully the D’backs get good production out of him.
great move
Kid is a stud but, damn, the D-Backs gave Martinez an extension after 1 year but still haven’t approached ace, Zac Gallen about an extension once in 6 years.
Signing Gallen to an extension was going to be very difficult. Boras client, although there is precedent of such players electing to sign extensions as mentioned in the Opener piece. Probably looking at least 6/$180M to extend him.
Yeah, when it’s just one year and counting down to FA, the D’Backs are going to have to get very close to what he’ll look for in FA to keep him around—and from their pov he’s in noticeable decline since 2022.
2024 was very close otherwise to his weak 2021 season, where the big difference was the lower % of fly balls turning into HR in 2024.
How legit was that? Will his FB rate for the next several seasons continue to match Kershaw’s career figure of 2.1%, where it needs to stay for Gallen to warrant 6/180m? And is Gallen’s 148 IP in 2024 a harbinger, or a blip?
—You’d know better than I do if AZ can handle two pitchers at 65m during their decline phases—and that’s even if those decline phases go well.
Why was BS let go? Who is he standing next to on the left?
I feel like the Corbin Burnes signing seeled Gallens fate with the Dbacks. I don’t see them committing $60+ million to two pitchers in the back half of their careers.
I agree. Especially when they already have no room for Nelson, who would take his spot.
Boras does not let teams get a discount for signing guys early. He wants full market value which takes any incentive away from the teams to sign to gain net value for them.
The extension was agreed to JUSTIN time !!
Can make him the closer now without saves driving up his price.
Good point and I hope so because I drafted him late assuming he’d be their closer.
This deal’s cheap—$3.6 million a year on average. If he gets even better, he could be worth four or five times that by the end, especially with the bonus years they can keep him for $7-9 million. And if they use him for longer stretches, not just one inning, he could change how they build their whole bullpen. People see a solid signing; the Diamondbacks might’ve grabbed a total game-changer without anyone noticing.
I believe this deal lines him up to be the closer.
Love love love this contract. If he continues his development he’ll be worth far more than this deal is for.
Great signing. The amount at risk is very low. J-Mart is certainly no lock, but his arm is so good that he’d be on the team for 26-27 no matter how badly he did. So the down side is maybe $9M and the upside is a Clase-like contract.
Hazen does a really good job in AZ, probably my favorite body of work for any GM/PBO in the league.
The best front office in baseball over the last three or so seasons.
The fired pitching coach who just went east has a different opinion.
Hazen and the analysts should have been the ones to lose their jobs not BS.
Recently signing Monty and Erod suggests a different story.
KK pushed for Monty. Not saying Hazen has a spotless record, either.
Good teams front offices lock their guys up as we are seeing today.
This one is not very complicated.
Jmart doesn’t throw a cutter because he is wise. He knows he doesn’t need it. He also knows five dbacks missed time last year because they were throwing the cutter. I feel very good inside Pittsburgh Paul gets that.
Lovullo is not an effective manager when it comes to handling pitchers.
Please be aware that JMart, GInkel, Puk should not throw the cutter. There is no need for it at all.. Ryne Nelson, Bryce Jarvis are not paying attention.