Starter Spotlight: Shaken Martinez

9-20-24 – By Michael Castrignano – @412DoublePlay on X

Heading into the weekend series in Cincinnati, the Pirates will face Nick Martinez again, who started against the Bucs in their August 25th matchup, pitching 3 innings and allowed 2 runs (1 earned) off 5 hits with no walks and one strikeout.

This was a spot-start for Martinez, opening for Carson Spiers as we discussed in the Starter Spotlight.

At the time, Martinez was bouncing between starting and pitching out of the bullpen but, with a number of injuries befalling their rotation, has secured a starting spot for the time being.

Over his three starts this month, Martinez has more than earned his role in the rotation as he pitched 18.2 innings with 11 hits, 2 earned runs, 4 walks and 18 strikeouts as he has won all three of those outings with a 0.96 ERA in that span.

Overall, Martinez has a 3.37 ERA on the season, pitching 128.1 innings across 40 games this year with a career-best 1.08 WHIP.

A veteran pitcher with 10+ seasons in pro ball, Martinez fills up the strike zone, avoids barrels and gets chases when he expands the zone with his excellent changeup being a big weapon for him.

Martinez works in the low-80s changeup with a low-90s 4-seam, high-80s cutter, low-90s sinker, low-80s curve and a mid-80s slider. 

He has leaned more heavily on the sinker when facing righties while posting near equal numbers for the 4-seam, changeup and cutter versus left-handed hitters.

Martinez works up in the zone with his 4-seam/cutter while dropping down more with both his change and curve. His sinker drops on the outer third of the plate against righties while breaking the slider down and in during these matchups.

One thing Martinez struggles with is keeping the ball on the ground, which is particularly problematic given his home ballpark as he has posted a 4.36 ERA over 66 innings pitched at Great American Ballpark compared to a 2.31 mark over 62.1 frames as the away team. Additionally, the cracks have started to show as a starter compared to a reliever.

First time through the lineup, opponents have a dismal .566 OPS against Martinez but that jumps to .885 the second time through with a .825 during the third go-round.

As a starter overall, he’s posted a 4.44 ERA with opponents posting a .742 OPS against compared to a 1.86 reliever ERA with a .560 OPS in that span.

Key to the game today will be trying to lay off the breaking ball and look for the high heat. He mixes in fastball variations nearly 60% of the time so staying on the low-90s and fouling off the junk in the zone will be critical in wearing Martinez down and getting to him later on in his start.

Let’s Go Bucs!