This afternoon, Nick Martinez will make his 30th start of the year. 

Thirty starts isn’t usually a huge milestone, at least not for a major league veteran. More than 30 pitchers have already hit that mark in 2026. Yet, for Martinez, that nice, round number 30 represents something special. The right-hander has played 16 professional campaigns. He has pitched for six organizations. He is now 36 years old. This will be the first time he’s ever reached 30 starts in a season. 

Martinez was a shortstop in college. The Rangers, however, liked what they saw from him in the handful of innings he pitched in relief. They selected him in the 18th round of the 2011 draft. Three years later, he broke camp as the team’s fifth starter. 

From 2014-15, Martinez made 45 starts for Texas, but he also spent brief stints in the bullpen both seasons. Over the next two years, he moved back and forth between the Rangers and Triple-A Round Rock more frequently. Texas non-tendered him at the end of the 2017 campaign. 

The next stop for Martinez was Japan. From 2018-21, he played for the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters and Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks. A forearm injury and immigration issues cut into his playing time during that span, but even if they hadn’t, he never would have reached 30 starts. NPB pitchers rarely make more than 26 or 27 starts in a season. 

Following a tremendous 2021 in NPB, Martinez signed with the Padres. Over the next four years, he established himself as the game’s most high-profile swingman. He began each season from 2022-25 in his team’s rotation, only to find himself bumped to the bullpen sooner or later. Nonetheless, Martinez found success no matter his role. He pitched to a 4.10 ERA in 61 starts and a 2.94 ERA over 131 games in relief.

When the Rays gave Martinez a one-year, $13MM guarantee last winter, they knew he might play a similar role in 2026. As Tampa Bay’s president of baseball operations, Erik Neander, explained at the time: “We might need some guys to get a little creative with how they provide innings. …Having someone on the staff that … has lived those experiences as successfully as any … has a lot of appeal” (per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times).

As it turns out, the Rays have asked plenty of arms to “get a little creative” this season. They have moved several pitchers between the bullpen and the rotation, most notably Griffin Jax, Ian Seymour, and Steven Matz, but also Mason Englert, Jesse Scholtens, and Joe Boyle. 

Yet, funnily enough, Martinez has stayed put in the starting rotation. He’s thrown 171 1/3 innings over 29 starts. His 2.94 ERA ranks sixth among qualified AL hurlers. His 3.5% walk rate is the best in baseball. The underlying numbers are less impressive (4.02 xERA, 4.64 SIERA), but the righty has consistently kept runners off the bases and runs off the board. He has worked into the fifth inning and given up three or fewer runs in 25 of his 29 starts. Only two pitchers, Cam Schlittler and Parker Messick, have done so more often. Martinez has refused to give the Rays any excuse to move him out of his starting role. So, he’s about to finish the first season of his MLB (or MiLB) career with zero appearances out of the ‘pen.

Many MLB pitchers – more than 1,700 – have made 30-plus starts in a season at least once. Only 12 of them did it for the first time at age 35 or older. The most recent was Tomoyuki Sugano in 2025. The most recent who wasn’t an established NPB star was R.A. Dickey in 2011. Before Dickey, it was fellow knuckleballer Steve Sparks in 2001. And before him, it was Willie Ramsdell in 1951; Ramsdell, if you’re unfamiliar, was known as “Willie the Knuck.”

Sugano had never played in Major League Baseball before his 35th birthday. Dickey, Sparks, and Ramsdell all found success after 30 thanks to an unusual pitch. The next four names on that list of 12 (Dick Barrett, Ed Heusser, Spud Chandler, and Ray Starr) each had their first 30-start seasons between 1942-45, when many of the game’s more established players were serving in World War II. The name preceding those four is Heinie Meine; he had already retired at least twice before his first 30-start season in 1931. Finally, three pitchers who were born in the 1870s round out the list: Stoney McGlynn, Walt Dickson, and George McConnell.

What I’m trying to say is that Martinez has a very different story than any of the 12 pitchers who did this before him. Entering this season, Martinez had pitched 280 MLB games. He had made 129 starts and thrown a total of 940 innings. He had struck out 670 batters. That’s more than any of those 12 other pitchers (before their first 30-start seasons) in every one of those categories. Even if he never were to pitch a full season as an MLB starter, he could have retired some day knowing he’d played a long, successful career. Now, the arc of that career has a new peak. 

Martinez made his first All-Star team this summer. There’s a good chance he’ll earn his first down-ballot Cy Young votes this fall. He has been the most surprisingly successful player on the league’s most surprisingly successful team. He leads the club in innings. He owns a sub-3.00 ERA. The Rays are 22-7 (.759) when Martinez takes the mound. As a reward, he will presumably take the ball for his first playoff start next month. 

Making 30 regular season starts is not his most tangible accomplishment, but it is a symbol of the unusual path his big league tenure has taken. Thousands of players have pitched in Major League Baseball. No one has done it quite like Martinez.

This afternoon, Nick Martinez will make his 30th start of the year. In doing so, he’ll tie a lovely ribbon on the finest season of his career.

Images by Isaiah J. Downing and Nathan Ray Seebeck (Imagn Images via Reuters Connect)