This story was excerpted from Adam Berry’s Rays Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
BALTIMORE -- Every time Nick Martinez comes off the mound, his job done for the day, Shane McClanahan approaches the right-hander with a message of appreciation.
“I love watching him throw. I tell him that after every single start,” McClanahan said. “I tell him, ‘It’s a pleasure to watch you throw.’”
Indeed, seeing Martinez go about his business has been a pleasure for the Rays so far this season. In 10 starts, he has put together a 1.51 ERA, second-lowest among qualified starters in the Majors behind only the Yankees’ Cam Schlittler.
The Rays have been raving since Spring Training about Martinez’s immediate impact inside their clubhouse, and his veteran presence has been a difference-maker throughout the club’s incredible start. But don’t let that obscure what an impactful, valuable pitcher he’s been, either.
“It’s just the guy that he is every day,” pitching coach Kyle Snyder said. “Very consistent in what he brings not just in the clubhouse, but to the pregame, off the field and certainly between the lines.”
The Rays have won eight of Martinez's 10 starts. He leads the team with 2.6 Wins Above Replacement, according to Baseball-Reference. And he has kept the Rays in every game he’s pitched.
That consistency is reflected in this surprising statistic: Martinez is one of only 17 traditional starters in baseball’s Modern Era (since 1900) to record 10 straight starts allowing two runs or fewer to begin a season -- and at 35 years old, he’s the oldest pitcher in that group.
Given all the big-time velocity and stuff in the game right now, you might be surprised to see Martinez so close to the top of the ERA leaderboard nearly one-third of the way through the season.
He doesn’t possess elite velocity. His fastball hovers around the low-to-mid 90s. He doesn’t have a big, swing-and-miss breaking ball. He’s not a huge strikeout guy, with only 36 in 59 2/3 innings so far this season.
So, what has made him so effective?
“I've been able to get ahead, stay ahead and change speeds and command my offspeed, especially when I need it,” said Martinez, who joined the Rays early in Spring Training on a $13 million contract. “That's been the biggest separator.”
Martinez has excellent command of a trio of fastballs: a four-seamer, a two-seamer and a cutter. He significantly increased the usage of his two-seamer, which now has more horizontal run and less vertical movement, after using it only sparingly against left-handed hitters the past few years. He’s not afraid to challenge hitters inside with his fastballs, and he has the command to do it.
“He understands how to work hitters, how his stuff’s best put to work,” Snyder said.
Martinez gets ahead of hitters, with a 66.5% first-pitch strike rate that is nearly the best of his career. He fills up the strike zone and has only walked 5% of the batters he’s faced so far.
He changes speeds, making more frequent use of a changeup that’s long been his best pitch and clocks in around 14 mph slower than his four-seamer and two-seamer. Opponents are batting just .115 with a .131 slugging percentage and a 34.2% whiff rate against his top offspeed offering.
“I don't think any team goes into it thinking like, 'Oh, he's not going to throw his changeup,’” manager Kevin Cash said. “They know it's coming, but it's been that good.”
Martinez is back to suppressing hard contact, holding opponents to an average exit velocity of 87 mph. Limiting hard-hit balls is a trait that made him so effective for the Padres and Reds from 2022-24, something he said he’s “just always been able to do very well in my career.”
And he’s relentless on the mound, finding ways to succeed even in outings where he doesn’t have his best stuff. Like Friday night’s start at Yankee Stadium, for instance. He said he didn’t have his best changeup, and he struggled to locate it in the strike zone. But he and catcher Nick Fortes still found a way to navigate through six innings of one-run baseball in the Rays’ 4-2 win.
“That goes back to maybe that more old-school approach, where it's like sometimes you've just got to compete,” Martinez said. “I think I've got to do that every time I go out there. Even if I have my changeup, I can't really take any pitches off.”
In a way, it’s just old-school, old-fashioned pitching. A pleasure to watch.
“He just pitches. He throws like he's 10 feet tall and throws 150 [mph],” McClanahan said. “It just gives me so much energy watching him pitch, because it's like he's a dawg. He just goes out there and competes with whatever he has that day.
“It’s a great person to watch as a young pitcher, as a competitor, and be like, 'I want to be like that guy.'”