In Game 1 of the 2026 World Series on Friday night, the Tampa Bay Rays will counter Milwaukee Brewers starter Jacob Misiorowski with a surprise choice: veteran right-hander Nick Martinez. Rays manager Kevin Cash announced the decision on Thursday.
"When Nick pitches, we win," Cash said.
The 36-year-old Martinez is coming off a strong regular season for the American League champs:
For those efforts, which were good for a WAR of 3.9, Martinez earned his first career All-Star selection.
"It's exciting," Martinez said on Thursday. "I think as a team, as a staff, we're confident in whoever we call up for the mound. It fell on me, and my job is just to rack up as many outs as we can and keep us in this ballgame."
While Martinez is certainly a worthy choice to start Game 1, the decision was largely unexpected. Ace Drew Rasmussen had been available to start Game 1 on full rest, but going with Martinez affords Rasmussen an extra day of rest, which could be welcome given his career-high workload this season.
Rasmussen instead is likely to go in Game 2. That means ALCS MVP and key deadline acquisition Freddy Peralta would start Game 3 back at Tropicana Field instead of pitching in Milwaukee, where he spent his entire career prior to this season. Specific rotation aside, if the series goes long enough, each of those three starters will get two full-rest turns against the Brewers. Martinez would be lined up to start a potential Game 5.
"We prioritized Drew getting an extra day," Cash said on Thursday. "He's had a pretty thick workload here and we've relied on him heavily. We know when he takes the ball, we're trying to get the full pitch allotment out of him. With Freddy, Freddy's workload in the CS was unique; we did ask him to come out of the bullpen between starts and felt like, how much of a toll does that take? I don't know. I thought he threw a really good ballgame in Game 6, but I did think that towards the end of that game, the velocities and stuff remained the same, but the command took a little bit of a dip."
Earlier in these playoffs, Martinez started ALDS Game 3 against the New York Yankees and ALCS Game 4 against the Cleveland Guardians. Across those two starts, he pitched to a 3.00 ERA with six strikeouts and three walks in nine combined innings.
