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2024 SnakePit Awards: Rookie of the Year – Justin Martinez

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Texas Rangers v Arizona Diamondbacks
Photo by Chris Coduto/Getty Images

Fire in the hole!

Voting is still open as I begin writing, but given the margin currently enjoyed by Justin Martinez, I feel fairly optimistic he’s going to be able to hang on. For he currently has received 79% of the votes. And that’s despite me managing to inadvertently leave his name off the ballot initially! Fortunately, I got a heads-up and was able to rectify the error. Now, that’s still less of a consensus than last year, when Corbin Carroll became, I think, the first entirely unanimous winner in SnakePit Award history. But it’s still impressive, especially for a relief pitcher – the first winner from there since Yoshihisa Hirano in 2018. Now, if we just get a starting pitcher: the last RotY there was Wade Miley, back in 2012…

Martinez has given the Diamondbacks something they’ve never had before: a true flame-thrower, who can hit triple digits on the radar gun consistently. We first saw this in 2023, when Justin made his debut on July 7th. His second pitch to Tucupita Marcano was clocked at 100.2 mph. By the end of the day, Martinez had thrown 14 pitches at 100 mph or faster, topping out at 101.9 mph. For comparison, prior to that day, in the entire Statcast era, all other D-backs’ pitchers had thrown only sixteen such pitcher (most of them, 11, by Carlos Vargas). By the end of the year, Martinez had cracked the century 98 times in just ten innings of work.

This came with a downside however: what Justin had in velocity, he lacked in accuracy. Mercano ended up walking, and that was the pattern. Martinez walked 11 of the 57 batters he faced last year, and that factored into an ugly 12.60 ERA. When the ball comes in at 102 mph, if it’s in the middle of the plate, it can end up leaving a lot faster. Going into the off-season, while there was no doubt about Justin’s raw stuff, the question was whether he’d be able to harness it. Arizona fans had seen their share of fireballers who ended up never amounting to anything much. [Vargas became part of the Eugenio Suarez trade with Seattle, and spent all this year in the minors]

Writing about Martinez in February, Michael said, “There’s still a long way to go for him to become a back end of the bullpen arm, but the combination of stuff and makeup are enough to keep believing in him.” Justin ended up a relatively early cut in spring, being sent to Reno on March 10, despite a decent 7:1 K:BB ratio over five innings of work. However, he barely spent a couple of weeks with the Aces, being recalled to the big league club on April 17, after Luis Frias had to go on the Injured List with right shoulder inflammation. He made his 2024 debut the same day, recording five outs against the Cubs with one walk, one strikeout, and five pitches in triple digits

That last is perhaps one key to Martinez’s success this season. In 2023, it seemed as if he was trying to blow it past everyone. 42% of his pitches were 100 mph or faster. But this year, Justin did a better job of mixing up his offerings. While still capable of fireballing opposing hitters, touching 103 mph, that number dropped to 36%. He also added a sinker to the mix, which became a devastating weapon and largely replaced the straighter four-seamer, with almost the same velocity, but more movement. This led to hitters getting on top of the ball, and increased his GB/FB ratio from 0.88 to 1.50. He spoke about adding this in May to Jack, and the help he got from a former D-backs closer.

I noticed that when I would throw my fastball I wasn’t really drawing any soft contact. I wasn’t getting any double play balls. So I decided to implement the sinker. I was playing with different grips and it came together in winter ball. Fernando Rodney helped me out and he showed me different grips with it… I’m not really throwing as many four seamers any more. I’m throwing more sinkers and I’m trying to evenly distribute the pitches so that the hitters are not just sitting on my four seam fastball.

I don’t want to go too much further into this, because James will be reviewing Martinez’s season in more detail on Christmas Eve. But suffice it to say, Martinez blossomed, posting a 2.48 ERA, and gradually working his way into higher leverage situations. While he did blow his first save opportunity of the year on July 21 in Wrigley Field, he took over as closer in August, after Paul Sewald was found wanting, and went 7-for-7 in converting chance that month. As mentioned in the poll article, Martinez’s strikeout rate of 11.3 per nine IP this year, was the highest by an Arizona rookie (min 30 IP) since Jose Valverde more than two decades ago, back in 2003.

It had felt like D-backs fans had watched from the sidelines during the bullpen arms race over the last few season, and been more the victim than the aggressor as relievers turned up the heat. After a few false dawns, with pitchers who were unable to convert their raw stuff into genuine pitching, it feels like Martinez became the real deal this year, giving us a sense of comfort when he came in, which has been sorely needed from our bullpen over the past few years. It’s worth noting he’s still only 23 years old, and won’t even be arbitration eligible until 2027. If this year is any guide, he could end up setting some franchise records for a reliever before he’s done.

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