NEWSLETTER
Old foe Carlos Martinez hasn’t been one of the most frustrating pitchers on the St. Louis Cardinals in three years now, and indeed hasn’t even been on the Cardinals since last season. I think I’m over being particular perturbed about anything to do with him, or feeling a sense of SCardenfreude when something goes wrong.
Still, it’s pretty notable that Martinez, who had most recently been pitching at Triple-A for the Boston Red Sox, just got popped for PEDs:
MLB announcement: Free-agent pitcher Carlos MartÃnez has received an 80-game suspension without pay after testing positive for Ibutamoren, a performance-enhancing substance. MartÃnez formerly is of the Cardinals and recently was released by the Red Sox.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) May 27, 2022
Martinez, who is only 30, was generally great for the Cardinals over the years when he was healthy enough to pitch, which was not as often as he or the Cardinals would’ve preferred. Ultimately, then, he didn’t put together a 3+ WAR season after 2017, when he was just 25. It was a stunning decline from there at such a young age. Sometimes the body just say no, and in that regard, I think I do feel a little bad for Martinez.
As for using a PED this year, though, I have less sympathy, even if it were tied to a last-ditch attempt to get back to the big leagues after a disastrous 2020-21 period with the Cardinals (6.95 ERA over 102.1 innings). Martinez will now be out for 80 games, and it’s pretty hard to see him coming back after that, particularly this season. Who knows, maybe something changes next offseason and he gets a minor league shot somewhere in the spring, but even that seems pretty unlikely at this point.
