Saying goodbye to former St. Louis Cardinal Carlos Martinez's brilliance and baggage

News broke recently that former St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Carlos Martinez has officially retired from baseball. It’s an end to a career that, at only 34 years old, could truthfully still be in full bloom. 

Let me acknowledge a few things up top: he was suspended under the MLB domestic violence policy (that’s truly and legitimately awful), he had a very odd evening on Twitter the night that Oscar Tavarez died, and he probably didn’t maximize his endless potential. He's a divisive figure in the Cardinals fandom to say the least.

Those are all facts, but I’d like to try to separate myself from that and remember him as he was on the field. This doesn’t excuse any of the foregoing, but Carlos Martinez was one of my favorite Cardinals ever, so be forewarned that the rest of this article is going to lavish praise on El Gallo from my personal fan perspective.

As a fan, the foundation of why I loved Carlos Martinez begins with where the franchise was as a whole. This was Peak Cardinals. It’s been quite a long time since we’ve experienced this, but this is the era when now essentially defunct publications like Sports Illustrated were calling the Cardinals the best-run organization in sports (Mo fell really hard, didn’t he?). 

2011 was the title year, of course. Against this glowing backdrop of baseball heaven, the next couple of years the Cardinals started graduating immense arm talent to the majors: Lynn, Wacha, Siegrist (do you guys remember that year he ran a 0.45 ERA, my Lord), Maness (whose Tommy John ligament shudders every time Mike Matheny thinks about him), Rosenthal, and Carlos Martinez. MLB fanbases hated us so much – and it was so awesome. We essentially felt like Dodgers fans do now.

Carlos Martinez came up and dazzled with his talent

When he came up, his vibes captured me immediately. This guy had rizz – to put it in modern Gen Z parlance. He threw hard. He had nasty breaking stuff. He wore high socks. He came out of the pen in 2013 and 2014 and just breathed dragon flames. Then, he transitioned to the starting rotation, and from 2015 until his first major injury in 2018, he was a sterling starting pitcher for this organization.

What really grabbed me was the way he pitched. He would have games where he was just in complete control and dominated the other team. It left you breathless. I can remember innings where he struck out the last batter, knew it as soon as the ball left his hand, and was halfway to the dugout before it crossed the plate. It was pure art. A finely tuned orchestra. The aligning of the planets. It was Cardinals nirvana and I loved every second of it. 

By the time 2017 rolled around, he was named to the All-Star team for a second time at 25 years old. These were not the kind of All-Star selections from an also-ran franchise because every team has to have a participant. He was dominating teams. In fact, because of the same last name and similar pitch style, the Cardinals circles I ran in whispered the name Pedro when he was twirling a gem. 

His stuff was electric. He threw a high-octane fastball that could just be blown by hitters in a tight spot. He could pull the string on a changeup that had left-handed batters searching for true north. That slider, though. That was the pitch that had him halfway to the dugout before the ump made the call. He was slinging lightning bolts while striking out more than one batter per inning. There is a crystalline beauty in a dominant pitcher at his peak that is hard to emulate in any other sport, and on many nights in his heyday, Carlos Martinez was the most beautiful thing in sports to me.

This is why we love Cardinals baseball in the first place

Ultimately, this is why we are fans, no? In every corner of Cardinal nation there are fans that develop preoccupations with certain guys. Performance, aesthetics, and personality all go into the mix to determine who fans will become enamored with. These are deeply personal decisions and why sports calls to us in the first place. In many ways, this is holy sports ground where baseball as national pastime moves into something far more personal. This is why we watch the Cardinals. This is why I can close my eyes and hear my dad talking about the Cardinals before he passed away in 2004. This is life.

Carlos Martinez may not have been your guy from the Peak Cardinals, but he was certainly my guy. I don’t begrudge you your fandom, so don’t begrudge me mine. 

In short, long live what was before all the turmoil. Viva El Gallo.