Nick Martinez Declines Mutual Option With Rays

Nick Martinez declined his end of a $20MM mutual option with the Rays, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post. Martinez will collect a $4MM buyout and return to free agency. The outcome was always certain. Mutual options are used as accounting measures and are almost never picked up by both sides. Even if Martinez opted in, it’s possible the low-spending Rays would have declined their side of the option, or otherwise picked it up before trying to trade Martinez. MLBTR’s Payroll Tracker projects the club for a $105.6MM cash payroll in 2027. Martinez would have bumped up that total by $16MM (the difference between the option price and the buyout). The 36-year-old Martinez may not get a $20MM average annual value on the market, but he should find a decently paying two-year deal with a higher total guarantee. Tampa Bay brought him in on a $13MM salary back in February. Martinez then delivered his best season as a full-time starter in the big leagues. Over 31 starts and 180 innings, Martinez held opponents to a 3.10 earned run average. Despite a below-average 15.1% strikeout rate, he thrived as the league’s premier control specialist. Martinez only gave up free passes 3.6% of the time, beating out teammate Drew Rasmussen and Braves lefty Chris Sale (both at 4.8%) for the best mark among qualified starters. ERA estimators like FIP (3.96) and SIERA (4.63) weren’t as bullish on Martinez, while FanGraphs gave him 2.9 wins above replacement, valuing his mid-rotation performance. Yandy Díaz already vested his option at $13MM when he crossed 500 plate appearances (Díaz finished with 686 PA). Martinez was the first of the four remaining club and mutual options on the Rays’ docket. They have a $3.1MM club option on shortstop Taylor Walls, who batted .222/.309/.298 with a 74 wRC+ over 124 games this year. That’s well-below-average offense, but Walls compensated with exceptional defense as usual, earning +21 Defensive Runs Saved at short. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects Walls for $3.5MM if he were to go through arbitration, so odds are the Rays pick up the option and save around $400K. Tampa Bay also has a $10MM mutual option on Cedric Mullins, on which they’ll pay a $500K buyout. The biggest decision involves Rasmussen. The Rays have a $20MM club option over him, and all signs point to them picking it up. At the same time, they’ve never carried a player making a $20MM salary. The team figures to pick up the option, then shop Rasmussen around for a package of major league-ready talent. That would leave at least three rotation spots to fill, assuming Martinez and Freddy Peralta sign elsewhere. Photo courtesy of Kim Klement Neitzel, Imagn Images View Comments (14)