Chris Martin battled anxiety valiantly in 2024 and even outpaced Father Time for about half the season. What’s next?
2024 In One Sentence
Chris Martin came to the end of what history will consider a valuable contract for the Red Sox, but his inconsistently in 2024 and dip from 2023 leave the Red Sox bullpen with some unanswered questions for 2025.
The Positives
Listen, if you think a 1.05 ERA was sustainable for another full season, regardless of Martin’s place as eighth-inning high leverage arm, I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you… or perhaps an outfielder in the Bronx with 201 career home runs at the age of 26. Chris Martin went to his cutter 45% of the time in 2024, up from 35% in 2023, and amassed a 27% whiff rate on that pitch, even if that rate on the remainder of his pitches left something to be desired. He continued to generate a chase rate up there with the very best pitchers in baseball. He still allowed just five home runs on the season, and walked just three batters in 44 1⁄3 innings. against 50 strikeouts. Though he couldn’t match his 20-straight scoreless appearances from 2023, he had two separate stints of nine straight.
And, if all that wasn’t enough, though it came from having a rough start to the season, and though Martin himself would categorize the underlying issues of this injury list stint, he played his part at redefining what it means to not be able to perform and started a dialogue – or at least the start of a dialogue – about how pitchers are expected to perform mentally and the support needed if the mechanisms of your mind just won’t allow it. And how that should absolutely be okay, despite retractors in the fanbase getting angry about money that isn’t theirs being spent ensuring a player is physically and mentally able to perform. I, for one, commend Martin for taking his time off and coming back visibly and drastically improved and well-rested. At least for a couple months.
The Negatives
Of course, having four blown saves and facing the minimum 3 batters in just 33% of his 1-inning performances was some depreciation from 2023 for Martin, who will turn 39 on June 2. So, too, was an ERA that more than tripled that of 2023, though it’s easy to triple a number around 1. Martin also lost about a mile-per-hour on his fastball velocity, going from 95 to 94, and, consequently, it was whiffed on just 18.7% of the time, down 10 percent from 2023’s four-seamers.
Of course, Martin’s presence was still a welcome one later in the season (though definitely not so much in September). But the circumstances that led to his injury list stint were unfortunate, as throughout the whole season, he was letting batters hit .355 in “low leverage” situations. And then some of those low leverage situations become medium leverage… and, well…
Best Moment
Because I have to get at least one Coldplay reference in an article about Chris Martin, at least he didn’t fall into a trapdoor, so he had a better 2024 than this, below:
In all seriousness, though, it has to be this sensational reaction to this comebacker on May 14 that sat Josh Lowe down on a sure line drive.
The Big Question/2025 and Beyond
Chris Martin’s contract is over. Does he come back?
Probably not. He’s about 18 months from turning 40, and while the Red Sox proudly (if not coyly) did a Weekend at Bernie’s with 44-year-old Rich Hill that lasted two games in 2024, I’d be surprised to see Martin return in 2025 for anywhere near the two year, $17.5 million dollar deal that he signed in late 2022. And, for certainly not the first time, I’ll say that if a team vowing to contend celebrates a transaction of a returning reliever (especially one who declined last season) as one of their top transactions, it will signal a failure of an offseason.
As I’ve said, he’ll be 39 by the midpoint of the season, and has publicly pontificated the possibility of 2025 being his final season, putting the odds at about 95 percent, via Sports Illustrated. That’s quite high, and Martin isn’t Jason Kelce or Vince Carter, so I’d expect 2025 to culminate in a Martin retirement. In the interest of not having to go to an eighth team (seventh if you don’t count Japan) in his Major League career, Martin may be amenable to sticking around at a lower rate, which would make the lemonade a bit sweeter going down. Anywhere around the $4 or $5 million mark would be an easy call for this front office. As unwatchable as the bullpen was in September while the team’s playoff hopes dwindled as quickly as some of the blown saves, Martin returning wouldn’t be a bad thing.
In the meantime, if this is it for Martin’s time in Boston, we can assuredly say that the $8.75 million a year for a dependable relief arm was a small price to pay for his services.