Pedro Martinez’s Possible Suitors

Rumors surfaced today that Pedro Martinez was nearing an agreement with the Houston Astros. While the rumors seem at press time to be holding no water, it does appear likely that Pedro Martinez is going to get a contract offer from someone relatively soon.

Pedro was also rumored to have turned down a one-year, $7 million deal back in January. If true, that was a catastrophic overestimation of the market as he’s not going to be able to get anywhere near that. Eric Seidman took a look at Pedro’s best case scenario’s back when the rumored deal was rejected.

Based on CHONE, ZiPS and Marcel, the likely performance for Pedro seems to be around 1 win with a spread of about a quarter win each way. Granted, a lot of that has to do with how many innings he will be able to log, being three years removed from his last season exceeding 140 innings pitched.

Regardless of their reported interest or lack thereof, Pedro does make quite a bit of sense for Houston. As it stands right now, they are relying on a lot of long shots and questionable health risks. Brandon Backe, Brian Moehler, Jose Capellan, Russ Ortiz and Mike Hampton are not a group that should be, making up the back end of your rotation without having contingency plans. Pedro Martinez could make up part of that contingency plan.

A friend of Manny Ramirez, Pedro might also find his way over to the Dodgers who seem to be giving up on the idea of getting anything out of Jason Schmidt. And apparently the Mets are not out of the question as a possible destination, possibly adding to the hilarious spaghetti of a rotation they have so far assembled behind Johan Santana. In any case, we can hope to find a resolution shortly as chances to audition come to close with the WBC ending.