Red Sox To Designate Seth Martinez For Assignment

The Red Sox are expected to designate righty Seth Martinez for assignment, Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com reports. His spot on the roster will go to lefty Alec Gamboa, who’s being recalled from Triple-A Worcester (as reported by Tommy Cassell of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette).

Martinez’s contract was just selected to the majors three days ago. The 31-year-old made one appearance with the Sox, allowing a run in an inning of work. He tossed 22 pitches in last night’s game, and the Sox will turn that bullpen spot over to Gamboa. Since Martinez is out of minor league options, he can’t be sent down without first being designated for assignment.

This is the sixth season in which Martinez has logged at least some big league action. He’s pitched 145 innings between Houston, Miami and Boston. The vast majority of that work came as an Astro. The right-hander sports a solid 4.03 earned run average with a 20.5% strikeout rate, 9.2% walk rate and 38.1% ground-ball rate. All of those rate stats are within arm’s reach but just a bit shy of league-average. Martinez sits 90-91 mph with his four-seamer and sinker, however, which isn’t particularly appealing to today’s brand of velocity-obsessed front office.

Lack of velocity notwithstanding, Martinez has a decent big league track record that’s backed up by quality results in Triple-A. The Arizona State product has picked up 208 2/3 innings across parts of six Triple-A seasons and delivered a 3.71 ERA with a 27.5% strikeout rate and 9% walk rate. He’s been tagged for a 5.55 ERA in 60 frames with Worcester this year thanks to an uncharacteristic spike in home runs allowed.

Martinez will now be placed on waivers. Due to the fact that he’s been outrighted in the past, he’ll have the right to reject an outright assignment to Triple-A in favor of free agency if he goes unclaimed.