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Ranking the 10 best contracts in recent St. Louis Cardinals history
By Josh Jacobs
No. 10: Carlos Martinez (2017-2021)
This list begins with a controversial name, but when looking at players that performed the highest over their contract values, Carlos cracks the top 10.
At the beginning of his five-year, $51 million deal in 2017, Martinez was named an All-Star, going 12-11 with an ERA of 3.64 over 205 innings of work. Across the length of the deal, he threw 474.1 innings with record of 28-31, 29 saves, and an ERA of 4.17.
2017 and 2018 were his last two years as the promising, top of the rotation kind of starter, but following an injury that ended his career year (ERA of 3.11 in 118 innings), Martinez became a solid closer for the club in 2019. Unfortunately, he would only throw 102 innings across 2020-2021 with an ERA of 6.95, bringing what could have been a stellar career to floating around as a free agent, at the moment.
The deal was originally set to go through 2023, but St. Louis wisely included a $500,000 buy out that saved the value of the contract. Without that, he more than likely would have missed this list after the next few seasons.