The Diamondbacks announced that right-hander Seth Martinez was claimed off waivers from the Astros. It hadn’t been publicly reported that Martinez had been designated for assignment, but the 30-year-old reliever will now change teams for the second time in his career.
Selected away from the Athletics in the 2020 Rule 5 Draft, all 137 1/3 of Martinez’s career big league innings have come in a Houston uniform. The righty has a career 3.93 ERA, 20.7% strikeout rate, and 9.2% walk rate, and his 2024 numbers included a 3.59 ERA, 16.2K%, and 8.1% walk rate in 52 2/3 frames. Martinez spent most of the season on the Astros’ big league roster, though after the All-Star break, Houston shuttled him back and forth from Triple-A on multiple occasions.
Martinez is now out of minor league options, which probably tied into the Astros’ decision to put the right-hander on waivers. Though he hasn’t yet reached arbitration eligibility and is under team control through 2028, the Astros felt comfortable moving on from Martinez, leaving Arizona able to pick up a controllable reliever for its bullpen mix.
There’s no risk for the D’Backs in taking a look at Martinez during Spring Training, and for now the club at least has a placeholder of a reliever in place as they look to remake their bullpen. Arizona’s relief corps was a weak link for the team in 2024, and Martinez represents the type of lower-cost reliever that GM Mike Hazen has tended to target during his time running the Diamondbacks’ front office.