When the 2022 MLB season began, Nick Martinez was an afterthought in fantasy baseball rankings and drafts. Any fantasy baseball projections or expectations for Martinez were a complete guess as the San Diego Padres pitcher returned to the big leagues after four years in Japan. Though he began this season in the Padres’ rotation, he’s much more relevant for fantasy baseball lineups lately because of a new role in the bullpen. In fact, Martinez has become an interesting fantasy baseball waiver wire pickup after some recent saves in a partial closer role for San Diego. The righty reliever could be a great late-season waiver add to help out your fantasy playoff matchups. Be sure to check out the MLB Closer Grid and the latest fantasy baseball bullpen reports to track other emerging relief pitchers. Let’s take a closer look at Martinez for the latest fantasy baseball player spotlight. 

 


When this season started, Martinez was a back-end starting pitcher for the Padres and wasn’t on any of our radars for fantasy baseball. San Diego signed the 32-year-old in March to a four-year deal after he spent the previous four seasons in the Japanese Nippon Professional League. His time overseas includes some good and bad mixed in, but his 1.62 ERA across 23 starts during the 2021 season is why MLB teams like the Padres were interested in his services. 

Despite the gaudy ERA from last year and a new big-league contract, Martinez wasn’t drafted in the majority of fantasy baseball leagues this season. Many of us remembered how he flamed out of the MLB with his 5.66 ERA in 2017 while with the Texas Rangers. If you played DFS back then, Martinez was a guy you routinely stacked opposing lineups against. 

Well, at the beginning of this season, it looked like the same old story as Martinez struggled to a 4.30 ERA in his 10 starts with San Diego and wasn’t anything more than a streaming pitcher in better matchups. Not only was he struggling as a starter, but the Padres used him as a long-reliever twice before pulling him out of the rotation altogether by mid-June. At that point, Martinez had a 4.03 ERA and 1.44 WHIP in his first few months returning to the majors. 

Once the Padres started to use him consistently as a reliever, Martinez then became much more effective for the team and for fantasy rosters. As of Sunday night, he’d pitched to a 1.76 ERA and 0.98 WHIP as a relief pitcher this year with a 35:8 K:BB ratio. Compare that to his 47:27 K:BB ratio as a starter and his aforementioned 4.03 ERA and 1.44 WHIP. That’s a stark difference and the Padres were clearly right to move him to the bullpen, whether it be in long-relief or for an inning here and there.

 


Then something very interesting happened. At the trade deadline, the Padres acquired Josh Hader and dealt away Taylor Rogers in a weird closer-for-closer transaction. On the surface, this should have negatively impacted Martinez (if at all) because it looked like Hader would now be locked into the closer’s role for San Diego. Before the trade, Martinez actually saved four games for the Padres after moving into the bullpen. Rogers was struggling at times and San Diego was desperate for a ninth-inning help. Thus the Hader trade likely signaled the end of save opportunities for Martinez and others. 

However, Hader also struggled with the Milwaukee Brewers before the trade and those issues carried over into August after the deadline. With Hader blowing a couple saves and failing to lock down that ninth inning, the Padres have again turned to Martinez at times. In fact, his last four appearances with San Diego have all been saves with Hader taking a backseat at times. Just check out how different the month of August went for Martinez and Hader. 

PitcherGamesInningsERAWHIPBAASaves
Nick Martinez1216.01.131.00.2114
Josh Hader85.219.063.53.4641

You look at those stats and tell me which guy should be closing games moving forward. With the Padres still in the National League Wild Card hunt, they may lean on Martinez more in the ninth innings in save situations than originally expected. If that's the case, then he certainly has value in fantasy baseball leagues if you're looking for saves.

Since Martinez has been racking up saves in his last chunk of appearances, he's no longer a secret on the fantasy baseball waiver wire. He's now rostered in 45% of Yahoo leagues and most of that roster percentage likely comes from the teams still in the playoffs. If he's still out there, though, Martinez is certainly worth a look if you need to some saves help in those playoff matchups. At worst, it looks like the Padres might split save chances between Hader and Martinez and lean the latter if the above stats are any indication. 

 

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