Olympic silver medalist Nick Martinez and the San Diego Padres of Major League Baseball (MLB) finalized a deal that could be worth as much as US$ 31.5 million over the next four seasons.
The right-handed pitcher gets a $2 million signing bonus and a $4 million salary for the 2022 season. The deal includes $6.5 million player options for 2023, 2024, 2025 seasons. His pay will escalate by $1 million per season if he makes at least 20 starts.
Martinez started two games for the United States at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. He went four innings in a 4-2 win against Korea on 31 July and five innings in the gold medal game against Japan. In both cases, he allowed just one earned run. His tournament earned run average (ERA) was 1.64.
After reaching the major leagues with the Texas Rangers in 2014, Martinez moved to the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) in 2018.
He spent the 2021 season with the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks, starting 21 games and posting a 9-4 record and a 1.60 ERA.
