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Diamondbacks Place Justin Martinez on the 15-Day Injured List
Apr 27, 2025; Phoenix, Arizona, USA; Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Justin Martinez (63) throws against the Atlanta Braves in the ninth inning at Chase Field. Mandatory Credit: Rick Scuteri-Imagn Images Rick Scuteri-Imagn Images

The Arizona Diamondbacks have made the anticipated roster move of placing fireballing reliever Justin Martinez on the 15-day IL with what they're calling right shoulder inflammation

.Left-hand reliever Jose Castillo has been added to the 40-man roster and called up to take his place. A.J. Puk has been placed on the 60-day IL, which is retroactive to April 19, and will now be out until late June.

A fireballing reliever with the electric stuff, Martinez has experienced sharp, unexplained velocity drops over his last two outings. While he says he feels fine, the results and the visuals on the mound speak to an underlying problem.

Martinez first began experiencing "fatigue" following back to bac outings on April 16 and 17. Up to that point, in eight games, his average sinker velocity never dipped below 100.1 MPH. Following that, however, he did not pitch again until April 23. His velocity was only down slightly, to 99.7, and he threw a scoreless inning with one strikeout.

It was on April 26 that the big difference started to truly emerge. His velocity was down 2-3 MPH across the board. His command also suffered, as he threw a wild pitch that resulted in a runner coming home from third, the deciding blow in an extra inning loss to the Atlanta Braves.

Pressing forward, the team let him work on back-to-back games. The alarm bells started ringing as his velocity was down even further to the 3-4 MPH range on April 27. He managed to hold on to register a save despite allowing a run on two walks and a base hit.

Following that game Lovullo expressed deep concern and alarm, but by the time the team spoke to reporters in New York, the manager seemingly walked back that level of concern, describing it as minimal. Assistant General Manager Mike Fitzgerald also seemed to downplay the significance of these velocity drops while speaking on the Wolf and Luke Show on Arizona Sports Radio.

All of that went up in smoke on Wednesday night against the Mets however. Martinez threw nine sinkers that averaged just 93.5 MPH, a 7 MPH drop from the levels he was at through his first eight games. He gave up a home run and walked two batters and was quickly lifted from the game.

Lovullo finally admitted that an MRI could be necessary and a IL stint was possible in his comments postgame to reporters Wednesday night. This seemed a foregone conclusion heading into Thursday morning.

Recently signed to a five-year, $18 million dollar contract extension, the Diamondbacks are now facing the loss of both their high leverage closer options. A.J. Puk has been on the injured list since April 19 with a left flexor tendon strain. He will not even begin a throwing program for at least another two to three weeks at the earliest.

That leaves the team with Shelby Miller, Jalen Beeks, Ryan Thompson, and Kevin Ginkel for high leverage innings. Ginkel just came off the injured list with a shoulder injury himself. Kendall Graveman is still another week or so from returning the from the injured list as well.

Castillo is a big lefty with a big fastball and slider combination. He has been often injured, but when healthy can bring some dynamic stuff from the left side. The 29 year old has just 40 major league innings with a 4.24 ERA however.

Without either Puk or Martinez for the foreseeable future, expect Lovullo to turn to a bullpen by committee approach, as has been the team's tendency in the past when they don't have a clear closing option. It's also possible that Ginkel could emerge as the closer, as he's filled that role before.

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This article first appeared on Arizona Diamondbacks on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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