Whatever happened to Pedro Martinez?

[bluejaysfan4ever]

I understand that he was out for most of 2008 with an injury and struggled last year. But what happened to him now?

Why is nobody signing him? He is a Hall of Fame pitcher with a career ERA under 3, which is almost unheard of in modern baseball.

[NYMets523]

He wants $5M and no one wants to give that to an old, fragile guy who pitches batting practice (1.569 WHIP).

[redban]

Yeah, I also heard that he wanted 5 million.

Maybe if he could put that aside and accept a far reduced salary, then he would get a lot of teams asking for him.

There's the chance of him getting injured or killing the bullpen by being a 5 inning pitcher; but there's also the chance of him being vintage Pedro. It's a good risk to take, and if I was a GM I would. He could be my number 4 or 5 starter any day.

Pedro has also stated that he would be open to pitching out of the bullpen too. So that's a possibility.

I do hope he gets signed eventually. I would hate for this to be the end.

[NYMets523]

I don't think you'd ever see a vintage Pedro performance out of him. Last year, in games in which he had 6 or more strikeouts, he gave up 4 runs or more in all of those starts except one. In all of those starts but 2, he walked about half as many batters as he struck out.

Him pitching out of the pen would be ugly. His numbers in the 1st inning were brutal last year. Batters hit .375/.429/.670 off him (a 181 OPS+), he also gave up 7 home runs in the 1st inning. He was better in the 2nd and 3rd innings but the 4th batters hit .296/.383/.469 and it got even uglier in the 5th inning when they hit .362/.430/.638.

[PVNICK]

Pedro looked done last year, but didn't want to get paid based on that performance. In the last few seasons thaere has been little that he has shown that would indicate he has a Mussina 2008 in him.

[KCGHOST]

He appears to be done and overvalues his worth to teams.

[plask_stirlac]

What happened to Mark Prior or Eric Gagne... if your stuff fails, you can be out of the game quickly even if last year (or month) was strong, and rest time might mean nothing.

Bright gas flames with no embers, maybe.

But there's sometimes a Foulke or Randy Johnson.

[RuthMayBond]

But there's sometimes a Foulke
What exactly is this referring to?

[gman5431]

He obviously is done. If he really wanted to pitch, he would accept a more reasonable (based on his current skills) salary and there is no doubt in my mind a team would take a flyer on him not only to see what he has left but also as a draw. However, no one is interested in paying 5 mil for what he brings to the table right now.

G Man

[joshfan]

Bought a great book at the dollar store of all places by Bill Simmons of ESPN
The title is Now I Can Rest in Peace
He reminds us all of how very dominating Pedro was for three years in Boston