Should you’re a daily FanGraphs reader, then that this week, the week after the Winter Conferences, is every week for roundups. The Rangers make a pair strikes on a Friday? I’ll bundle them into one comfortable article. A passel of lefties comes off the board on a Tuesday? Michael Rosen will prepare them right into a tidy bouquet. A pair groups discuss themselves into believing that they could possibly be those to determine Josh Bell and Adolis García? Michael Baumann will slam his head into the wall repeatedly for our amusement. That’s the way it goes.
On Wednesday, Chris Martin, the large, 39-year-old center reliever from Texas, signed up for one final rodeo together with his hometown Rangers. As with many minor offers, nobody has reported how a lot Martin might be paid for the 2026 season. The information appeared all however destined to occupy one quarter of a reliever roundup, however I’d like to provide Martin single billing right here, as a result of I don’t assume we’ve finished a ok job of celebrating simply how good he’s been. Let’s begin originally.
Martin is 6-foot-8, and whereas many pitchers that tall want awhile to determine issues out, his journey was significantly twistier. The Tigers chosen him out of Arlington Excessive Faculty within the 18th spherical of the 2004 draft, however Martin went to McLennan Group School in Waco as a substitute. The Rockies took him within the twenty first spherical as a draft-and-follow in 2005, however he tore his labrum in his sophomore season, in order that they declined to signal him. In 2007, he tried out for and made the Fort Value Cats, an unbiased group, however he didn’t keep lengthy. His shoulder “simply wasn’t able to go,” he later informed reporters.
Martin underwent surgical procedure, discovered a warehouse job, and that was that, not less than for some time. Three years later, he tried out for the indy ball Grand Prairie AirHogs. He made the rotation, ran a 1.96 ERA, and signed with the Crimson Sox. From 2011 to 2013, Martin put up a 3.12 ERA and a couple of.96 FIP within the minors, throwing greater than 70 innings a season and peaking at Triple-A. The Crimson Sox traded him to the Rockies after the 2013 season, and he debuted for Colorado in 2014, then acquired bought to the Yankees for the 2015 season. Over these first two years of his profession, pitching for the Rockies and the Yankees, Martin owned a 6.19 ERA regardless of a 3.71 FIP. He appeared monumentally unfortunate, however the Yankees launched him. At age 30, he went to pitch for the Nippon Ham Fighters in NPB. Martin was unhittable in Japan, posting a 1.11 ERA throughout the 2016 and 2017 seasons. Regardless of coping with an ankle damage, he struck out 29% of the batters he confronted and walked simply 4% of them. That’s to say, he walked 13 batters throughout two seasons and 89 1/3 innings. That’s ok to deliver you residence.
The Rangers signed Martin to a two-year deal for $4 million. “The Martin signing is a reasonably simple one to disregard, all issues thought of,” Jeff Sullivan wrote on the time. “I can’t make any guarantees. I don’t know what Martin is perhaps able to. However I really feel nearly obligated to attempt to discuss him up. This looks like a forgettable deal, however Martin seems to have main upside.” In 2018, Martin as soon as once more underperformed his FIP in a serious means, however issues lastly went proper in 2019. How proper did they go?
From 2019 to 2025, Martin has pitched 311 innings with a 2.84 ERA and a 2.88 FIP. Over these seven seasons, he’s put up 6.5 WAR as a reliever. That’s the Eleventh-highest complete in baseball. The ten gamers forward of him have names like Clase, Hader, Díaz, Williams, Chapman, and Jansen. We’re speaking about the most effective relievers in baseball right here. Martin has a greater ERA than six of them. He has a greater FIP than six of them, too. However each participant forward of him has not less than 86 saves in comparison with Martin’s 15. That’s comprehensible. Martin doesn’t appear like a more in-depth. He doesn’t have one unhittable pitch. He throws a bunch of various ones. His fastball hangs out proper across the league common by way of velocity. He doesn’t rack up a ton of whiffs. His best talent is avoiding walks. However he does strike out a stunning variety of batters, and he does hold the ball on the bottom; that mixture has allowed him to be among the best relievers within the sport into his late 30s.
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Martin’s means to strike out batters with out racking up whiffs is really outlier stuff. As you certainly know, the connection there’s extraordinarily linear. Gamers who miss bats rack up strikeouts. Right here’s a graph that exhibits each pitcher with not less than 250 innings pitched over the previous seven seasons. Martin is the pink dot with the strikeout charge that’s means increased than it needs to be.
That’s simply over the past six years, although. We’re cherry choosing Martin’s greatest seasons. We’ve acquired whiff charges going again to 2002, and even after we consider his odd, ugly first three main league campaigns, he nonetheless stands out from the pack.
How the hell does Martin do this? How does he rack up so many strikeouts with out getting that many whiffs? It’s not by incomes tons of referred to as strikes. Among the many 1,145 pitchers on that graph, his 16% referred to as strike charge places him within the thirty fourth percentile. Martin strikes out all these batters by a good unsexier means. He induces tons of foul balls. Over the course of his profession, when batters have swung at Martin’s pitches, they’ve fouled the ball off 42% of the time. Since 2008, 857 completely different pitchers have induced not less than 2,000 swings. Amongst them, Martin’s 42% foul charge ranks thirteenth. That’s six spots under Mariano Rivera. Put all of it collectively, and Martin has earned strikes on 51% of the pitches he’s thrown within the huge leagues. Over the course of the pitch monitoring period, that places him within the 97th percentile, proper between Garrett Crochet and Max Scherzer. I swear to God.
As soon as he lastly caught within the huge leagues, Martin bounced round, going from the Rangers to the Braves (with whom he gained a World Sequence), the Cubs, the Dodgers, and the Crimson Sox. After 2024, he indicated that he’d like to shut out his profession with one last season with the Rangers. He signed for one 12 months and a hometown low cost of $5.5 million. Echoing Jeff Sullivan eight years later, Michael Baumann wrote, “Martin is neither a workhorse nor a man with knockout stuff. His profession excessive in innings is 55 2/3, his fastball sits within the low-to-mid 90s, and he has no breaking ball value talking of.”
The whole lot Baumann stated was true. Martin throws two fastballs and a changeup, and leads with the foul-inducing cutter. Essentially the most intimidating factor about him is his peak, and issues didn’t go all that nice in 2025. Shoulder fatigue pressured him to the IL in Could, and a calf pressure did the identical in July. Scariest of all, his season ended a number of weeks early to due thoracic outlet syndrome. For as soon as, although, luck appeared to be on Martin’s aspect. As a result of he gave up a number of extra residence runs and walks than traditional, his 3.58 FIP was his highest since 2015. Nonetheless, he completed with a 2.98 ERA over 42 1/3 innings.
So what ought to we count on from Martin in 2026? I assume I must be the newest in an extended line of FanGraphs writers to tamp down your expectations. There is no such thing as a method to know what to anticipate from Martin at this level in his profession. He’ll flip 40 in June. He confronted a number of accidents final season. He might be pitching by way of thoracic outlet syndrome, which generally is a profession ender at any age. His fastball was solidly under common in velocity throughout his previous few appearances, and he ran his lowest groundball charge since 2020. However I’m not going to rely Martin out simply but. DRA- nonetheless thought he was nice in 2025. Stuff+ favored each certainly one of his pitches fairly a bit (and it adored the sweeper that he mainly by no means throws). The Rangers clearly nonetheless assume he has one thing within the tank. He’s earned not less than yet one more probability.