Go Reds!
If the Cincinnati Reds play the way they played last night for most of the rest of the 2025 season, Nick Martinez is going to end up being a key piece for their run to the playoffs.
How the Reds try to manage the innings on Chase Burns’ arm and how quickly they insert Hunter Greene back into the starting rotation will be eased significantly by the versatility of Martinez, who is both willing and able to throw an inning or four here and make a 100 pitch start just a couple of days later. In so many ways, he’s exactly what can ‘unlock’ an entire Cincinnati pitching staff.
If the Reds play at all worse than they did yesterday, however, today may end up being one of the final times we even see Nick in a Reds uniform.
Cincinnati won yesterday in their series opener against the New York Mets, but they still sit 7.5 games back in the National League Central division (in 4th place) and 2.5 games back of the last NL Wild Card spot (with the need to jump each of St. Louis, San Francisco, and San Diego). If the Reds stumble at all in the next week, Martinez – who’s earning $21.05 million in his final season of team control – would end up one of the better rental arms on the trade block.
Such is life in the tightly packed NL playoff race. Such is also life in the realm of the Reds, who are forever looking to be opportunistic when the chance arises to both save cash and load up on the farm system.
Martinez toes the rubber today at 4:10 PM ET against the Mets opposite Clay Holmes. Go get ‘em, Nick! Go get ‘em, Redlegs!