Major League Baseball on Thursday announced that free agent pitcher Carlos Martinez has accepted an 85-game unpaid suspension for violating the league's Joint Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Policy. The suspension is retroactive to June 19, and according to the terms of the agreement Martinez will participate in an evaluation and treatment program.
The exact nature of Martinez's violation of the policy was not disclosed. His 85-game ban ranks as one of the longer suspensions under the policy. Since it was instituted in 2015, just Trevor Bauer (324 games), Sam Dyson (162 games), and José Torres (100 games) were suspended for longer.
Martinez, 30, has not pitched in the majors since 2021. This season, he made two appearances in Triple-A as a member of the Red Sox organization but was released on May 17. Prior to that, he had briefly been a member of the Giants organization. Not long after his release by the Red Sox, Martinez was suspended for 80 games after testing positive for the banned substance Ibutamoren.
Martinez is mostly known for the nine seasons he spent in the majors with the St. Louis Cardinals. A two-time All-Star, Martinez once looked like an ace in the making, but premature decline seemed to take hold in recent years.
Given Thursday's announcement on top of the earlier banned-substance suspension, it seems likely that Martinez's MLB is effectively over.
