Starter Spotlight: Change Things Up On Martinez

5-20-2025 – By Michael Castrignano – @412DoublePlay on X

Mired in the midst of arguably their worst season over nearly 75 years, the Pirates BADLY need a change. Instead, they will continue their series against Cincinnati as Nick Martinez toes the rubber for the Reds.

After accepting a Qualifying Offer from Cincinnati this past off-season, Martinez is currently the highest paid player on the Reds with a $21.05M salary.

And while he hasn’t been quite as dominant as 2024 when he went 10-7 with a 3.10 ERA through 142.1 innings pitched, he’s still finding solid success as he enters today with a 3.66 ERA through 51.2 frames this season.

He started twice against the Pirates last season, combining 9 innings of 7-hit, 1-run ball with 10 strikeouts and zero walks.

In fact, Martinez has consistently excelled at limiting free passes with his 5.3% walk rate this year sitting 7th lowest among NL qualified starters.

As I covered previously, Martinez relies on weak contact to generate much of his success, strongly held up with one of the better changeups in baseball.

Among pitchers who have thrown at least 100 changeups this season, Martinez ranks 8th in wOBA, 6th in batting average and expected batting average and 2nd in both expected slugging and xwOBA.

Opponents are batting just .130 and slugging .283 against his changeup but hitters have largely won the battle against his fastballs (.288/.486) and breaking balls (.289/.421).

Martinez employs a high release on his pitches that allows him to drive the ball more on a downward plane, typically locating his non-fastball offerings lower in the zone.

He tends to work 4-seam and cutters up and in against lefties with that changeup dropping down and away. By contrast, he primarily works sinker/sliders when facing righties – neither of which has been particularly effective for him (.420 and .360 wOBA) but the slider breaks down and away from righties and has a 44.2% whiff rate in those instances.

Hold to high heat, lay off the big spinning stuff down and be ready for a bunch of stuff in the strike zone.