On Monday, the Yomiuri Giants of Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan made a huge signing to strengthen their bullpen. They signed Cuban right-hander Raidel Martínez to a two-year, $16 million contract.
Martínez is recently coming off a stent playing with Cuba in Premier12. He only pitched an inning against Australia, but he recorded two strikeouts.
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He is also coming off a phenomenal season in the Nippon with the Chunichi Dragons. In 58.0 innings of work, he finished with a 1.09 ERA and had 59 strikeouts. Martínez did a great job limiting walks, giving up only 12 out of the 200+ batters he faced.
The most impressive part of his season was his 43 saves. This is a crazy feat, considering the Nippon record for saves in a season is 54 (held by Dennis Sarfate in 2017).
This signing is a great move for the Yomiuri Giants. They were the best pitching team in the Central League this past season, recording a 2.49-team ERA. They also had the most strikeouts and gave up the second-fewest walks as a pitching staff in the Central League.
Martínez is going to blend into the Giants’ bullpen and make them a formidable force around the Nippon heading into next season.
