Dennis Martinez

Born: 5/14/1954 in Granada, Granada, Nicaragua

MLB Debut: 1976-09-14 | Final Game: 1998-09-27

Bats: R | Throws: R | Height: 6'1" | Weight: 160 lbs

Full name: Jose Dennis Martinez

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Biography

Dennis Martinez, born in 1954, was a prominent pitcher in Major League Baseball whose career spanned from 1976 until his retirement in 1998. Known for his exceptional command and ability to pitch deep into games, Martinez finished his career with a record of 245 wins and 193 losses, complemented by an earned run average (ERA) of 3.7. He amassed a total of 2,149 strikeouts and recorded 8 saves, showcasing his versatility as both a starter and a relief option. His skill on the mound earned him four selections to the All-Star Game, highlighting his status as one of the top pitchers of his era. Playing during a time when the game was evolving, Martinez's career coincided with the rise of offensive power in baseball, yet he consistently demonstrated the ability to control games with his pitching prowess. He was a key figure in various teams, including the Montreal Expos and the Baltimore Orioles, and became known for his competitive spirit and work ethic. Martinez's contributions to the game extended beyond statistics; he served as a mentor to younger players and played a significant role in popularizing baseball in his native Nicaragua. His legacy continues to resonate, as he remains a respected figure in the history of the sport.

Career Pitching Statistics

W	L	G	GS	CG	SHO	SV	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	SO	ERA	Pitcher PIV
245	193	692	562	122	30	8	3999.7	3897	1643	372	1165	2149	3.70	0

Career ERA 3.70 vs. league average 4.00 across their career seasons — 7.6% better than league average.

Season-by-Season Pitching

Year	Team	Lg	W	L	G	GS	CG	SHO	SV	IP	H	ER	BB	SO	ERA	Lg ERA	Pitcher PIV
1976	BAL	AL	1	2	4	2	1	0	0	27.7	23	8	8	18	2.60	3.51 (+26%)	588.1
1977	BAL	AL	14	7	42	13	5	0	4	166.7	157	76	64	107	4.10	4.00 (-3%)	2018.9
1978	BAL	AL	16	11	40	38	15	2	0	276.3	257	108	93	142	3.52	3.69 (+5%)	1071.5
1979	BAL	AL	15	16	40	39	18	3	0	292.3	279	119	78	132	3.66	4.00 (+8%)	907.0
1980	BAL	AL	6	4	25	12	2	0	1	99.7	103	44	44	42	3.97	3.84 (-3%)	-2587.4
1981	BAL	AL	14	5	25	24	9	2	0	179.0	173	66	62	88	3.32	3.58 (+7%)	777.7
1982	BAL	AL	16	12	40	39	10	2	0	252.0	262	118	87	111	4.21	3.86 (-9%)	-4236.8
1983	BAL	AL	7	16	32	25	4	0	0	153.0	209	94	45	71	5.53	3.87 (-43%)	-2605.8
1984	BAL	AL	6	9	34	20	2	0	0	141.7	145	79	37	77	5.02	3.81 (-32%)	-4175.0
1985	BAL	AL	13	11	33	31	3	1	0	180.0	203	103	63	68	5.15	3.89 (-32%)	-6205.4
1986	BAL	AL	0	0	4	0	0	0	0	6.7	11	5	2	2	6.75	—	0.0
1986	WSN	NL	3	6	19	15	1	1	0	98.0	103	50	28	63	4.59	3.97 (-16%)	-
1987	WSN	NL	11	4	22	22	2	1	0	144.7	133	53	40	84	3.30	4.29 (+23%)	-
1988	WSN	NL	15	13	34	34	9	2	0	235.3	215	71	55	120	2.72	3.73 (+27%)	-
1989	WSN	NL	16	7	34	33	5	2	0	232.0	227	82	49	142	3.18	3.71 (+14%)	-
1990	WSN	NL	10	11	32	32	7	2	0	226.0	191	74	49	156	2.95	3.86 (+24%)	-
1991	WSN	NL	14	11	31	31	9	5	0	222.0	187	59	62	123	2.39	3.91 (+39%)	-
1992	WSN	NL	16	11	32	32	6	0	0	226.3	172	62	60	147	2.47	3.75 (+34%)	-
1993	WSN	NL	15	9	35	34	2	0	1	224.7	211	96	64	138	3.85	4.19 (+8%)	-
1994	CLE	AL	11	6	24	24	7	3	0	176.7	166	69	44	92	3.52	4.51 (+22%)	2407.2
1995	CLE	AL	12	5	28	28	3	2	0	187.0	174	64	46	99	3.08	4.45 (+31%)	1428.9
1996	CLE	AL	9	6	20	20	1	1	0	112.0	122	56	37	48	4.50	4.61 (+2%)	-403.9
1997	SEA	AL	1	5	9	9	0	0	0	49.0	65	42	29	17	7.71	4.39 (-76%)	-2910.8
1998	ATL	NL	4	6	53	5	1	1	2	91.0	109	45	19	62	4.45	4.43 (avg)	1824.0

Career Batting Statistics

G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	BB	SO	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS	PIV
695	520	25	74	12	0	0	33	1	15	168	0.142	0.169	0.165	0.334	-3622.5

Career AVG .142 vs. league average .261 across their career seasons — 45.5% below league average.

Career OBP .169 vs. league average .328 across their career seasons — 48.5% below league average.

Career SLG .165 vs. league average .395 across their career seasons — 58.1% below league average.

Career OPS 0.334 vs. league average 0.723 across their career seasons — 53.7% below league average.

Season-by-Season Batting

Year	Team	Lg	G	AB	R	H	2B	RBI	SB	BB	SO	AVG	Lg AVG	Lg OBP	Lg SLG	Lg OPS	PIV
1976	BAL	AL	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000	—	—	—	—	0.0
1977	BAL	AL	42	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000	—	—	—	—	0.0
1978	BAL	AL	40	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000	—	—	—	—	0.0
1979	BAL	AL	40	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000	—	—	—	—	0.0
1980	BAL	AL	26	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000	—	—	—	—	0.0
1981	BAL	AL	25	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000	—	—	—	—	0.0
1982	BAL	AL	40	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000	—	—	—	—	0.0
1983	BAL	AL	32	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000	—	—	—	—	0.0
1984	BAL	AL	34	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000	—	—	—	—	0.0
1985	BAL	AL	33	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000	—	—	—	—	0.0
1986	BAL	AL	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000	—	—	—	—	0.0
1986	WSN	NL	19	30	1	3	2	3	0	1	14	0.100	—	—	—	—	0.0
1987	WSN	NL	22	46	5	3	0	3	0	3	17	0.065	—	—	—	—	0.0
1988	WSN	NL	34	78	2	15	2	7	0	1	25	0.192	.254 (-24%)	.317 (-33%)	.377 (-42%)	.695 (-38%)	-484.5
1989	WSN	NL	34	72	5	9	0	3	1	5	19	0.125	.254 (-51%)	.319 (-43%)	.375 (-67%)	.694 (-56%)	-646.5
1990	WSN	NL	32	68	0	7	1	6	0	1	25	0.103	.257 (-60%)	.324 (-60%)	.385 (-69%)	.710 (-65%)	-736.0
1991	WSN	NL	32	72	8	11	4	2	0	1	24	0.153	.255 (-40%)	.323 (-49%)	.384 (-46%)	.708 (-47%)	-576.9
1992	WSN	NL	32	74	3	14	0	2	0	0	20	0.189	.255 (-26%)	.322 (-41%)	.377 (-50%)	.699 (-46%)	-553.7
1993	WSN	NL	36	69	1	11	2	4	0	2	17	0.159	.265 (-40%)	.332 (-46%)	.403 (-53%)	.735 (-50%)	-625.0
1994	CLE	AL	24	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000	—	—	—	—	0.0
1995	CLE	AL	28	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000	—	—	—	—	0.0
1996	CLE	AL	20	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000	—	—	—	—	0.0
1997	SEA	AL	9	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000	—	—	—	—	0.0
1998	ATL	NL	53	11	0	1	1	3	0	1	7	0.091	—	—	—	—	0.0

Postseason Statistics

Playoff Career Batting

G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	AVG
12	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0.000

Playoff Batting by Year

Year	Round	Team	G	AB	SO	AVG
1998	NLCS	ATL	4	0	0	.000
1995	ALCS	CLE	2	0	0	.000
1995	ALDS1	CLE	1	0	0	.000
1995	WS	CLE	2	3	1	0.000
1979	ALCS	BAL	1	0	0	.000
1979	WS	BAL	2	0	0	.000

Playoff Career Pitching

W	L	G	GS	SV	IP	H	ER	BB	SO	ERA
2	2	12	7	0	43.3	42	16	12	18	3.32

Playoff Pitching by Year

Year	Round	Team	W	L	G	GS	IP	H	ER	BB	SO	ERA
1998	NLCS	ATL	1	0	4	0	3.3	1	0	1	0	0.00
1995	ALCS	CLE	1	1	2	2	13.3	10	3	3	7	2.02
1995	ALDS1	CLE	0	0	1	1	6.0	5	2	0	2	3.00
1995	WS	CLE	0	1	2	2	10.3	12	4	8	5	3.48
1979	ALCS	BAL	0	0	1	1	8.3	8	3	0	4	3.24
1979	WS	BAL	0	0	2	1	2.0	6	4	0	0	18.00

Fielding Statistics

Career Fielding Totals by Position

Position	G	GS	PO	A	E	DP
P	692	562	319	763	42	61

Season-by-Season Fielding

Year	Team	Pos	G	GS	PO	A	E	DP
1976	BAL	P	4	2	3	4	0	0
1977	BAL	P	42	13	9	26	1	2
1978	BAL	P	40	38	27	51	1	6
1979	BAL	P	40	39	26	59	5	3
1980	BAL	P	25	12	5	16	0	1
1981	BAL	P	25	24	20	44	2	4
1982	BAL	P	40	39	13	38	1	2
1983	BAL	P	32	25	16	42	1	8
1984	BAL	P	34	20	17	19	2	4
1985	BAL	P	33	31	17	26	1	0
1986	BAL	P	4	0	1	2	0	0
1986	MON	P	19	15	3	23	1	0
1987	MON	P	22	22	10	23	1	3
1988	MON	P	34	34	19	39	6	3
1989	MON	P	34	33	11	50	2	6
1990	MON	P	32	32	16	35	1	2
1991	MON	P	31	31	21	48	4	5
1992	MON	P	32	32	20	45	4	3
1993	MON	P	35	34	17	46	1	1
1994	CLE	P	24	24	11	33	0	2
1995	CLE	P	28	28	15	46	4	3
1996	CLE	P	20	20	10	26	1	1
1997	SEA	P	9	9	6	6	2	0
1998	ATL	P	53	5	6	16	1	2

Career Games by Position

Position	Games
Pitcher	692
Designated Hitter	1

Awards & Honors

Year	Award	Notes
1992	Pitcher of the Month	August
1991	Pitcher of the Month	July
1991	Player of the Week	Week of 1991-06-15
1991	Player of the Week	Week of 1991-07-27
1981	Pitcher of the Month	September

Salary History

Year	Team	League	Salary
1998	ATL	NL	$550,000
1996	CLE	AL	$3,816,766
1995	CLE	AL	$4,550,000
1994	CLE	AL	$4,500,000
1993	MON	NL	$2,833,333
1992	MON	NL	$3,348,333
1991	MON	NL	$3,333,333
1990	MON	NL	$1,400,000
1989	MON	NL	$735,000
1988	MON	NL	$735,000
1987	MON	NL	$162,500
1986	BAL	AL	$560,458
1985	BAL	AL	$560,000
Total Career Earnings			$27,084,723