Yankees Editorial: Chris Martin is Becoming the Teams Top Reliever

In the first few games of the Yankees season, skipper Joe Girardi unfortunately had to pull some of his starting pitchers from the ballgame while trailing on the scoreboard. Each time, he’s put the ball in the same guys hand to keep his team in the game.

That guy is Chris Martin, a 28-year old right-hander who was acquired by the Yankees from the Colorado Rockies in mid January. Martin was called upon by Girardi for the first time as a Yankee earlier this week after Masahiro Tanaka and Michael Pineda were pulled from their starts.

He pitched a scoreless fifth inning when he replaced Tanaka and a scoreless seventh inning when he replaced Pineda. Interestingly enough, when he made his Yankee debut on Monday after replacing Tanaka, he fanned the first three batters he faced, becoming only the second Yankees pitcher in history to retire the first three batter in their debut.

According to Ryan Hatch of NJ.com, Chris Martin is a typical Joe Girardi reliever.

He has a lanky frame, standing six-foot-eight and weighing only 215 pounds. He was drafted in 2004 and 2005, but turned down a contract both times. Instead, Martin elected to head to junior college in Texas, and would eventually sign on as a free-agent with the Boston Red Sox six years later. Prior to 2015, his only major league experience came in 2014 with the Colorado Rockies, when he threw 15.2 innings with an escalated 6.89 ERA.

“We like what we’ve seen,” Girardi said of Martin this season. “Obviously we liked his last outing, but [also] the last few outings of spring training.”

Martin sits in the 93-94 mph range with his fastball, and has added a pretty impressive breaking ball to compliment his cutter. In 2014 Martin threw his slider just 17% of the time, but after working with Larry Rothschild all spring, he’s thrown it about 33% of the time.

Martin did struggle a bit in his last outing, as he gave up two hits and two runs, both of which were earned, in 1.0 inning pitched, but this isn’t a cause for concern. Prior to Sunday night, Martin has been lights out. He pitched 2.2 innings with four strikeouts and zero hits against.

Yankee fans should expect to see this all year. In close games when you see Girardi make a call to the bullpen, it’s likely No. 57 will be charging out onto the field

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