Report: Tampa Bay Rays Interested In Pedro Martinez; Workout Held In D.R.

Update:

And maybe this is nothing. Apparently Pedro was doing a bullpen session and a Rays employee, who happens to be a friend of Pedro, was there. Maybe it means something, maybe it means nothing. We have however confirmed that a Rays employee was there.

Oh, and rotation spots are going to be hard to come by. Kazmir is throwing a simulated game tomorrow before heading to Port Charlotte hopefully next week.

---
According to reports out of the Domincan Republic, the Rays have worked out Pedro Martinez and have another workout scheduled. According to one report Pedro Martinez could be in uniform by this weekend. This is obvious a bit of a shock to the system and raises a few questions. One would assume he would be a starter so who would he replace? Sonnanstine? How much will he cost?

From the mid ninties up until 2005, Martinez was one of if not the games best pitcher. In a five year span (1999-2003) he had an average FIP of 1.92. However, in recent years we've seen an off injured and less effective Martinez. In 2008 he posted a career low 7.18 K/9 along with a career worst 1.98 K/BB. He gave up 19 home runs in just 109 innings and his 5.18 FIP was in line with his 5.61 ERA. Stuff wise he was throwing around 88 mph and still used his change up 20% of the time.

This offseason Martinez went unsigned after asking for a reported $5 million dollar salary with reports of upward of $7 million. Obviously in a depressed market all teams passed on the 37 year old. One would assume for the Rays to get involved that price tag has come down even after you pro-rate it over the final two-thirds of the season. We don't know how effective Martinez would be, but obviously the Rays wouldn't make a move unless they felt Martinez was an upgrade over someone on the current pitching staff and still has the ability to get major league hitters out.