Let’s hope that’s the last time Carlos Martinez stinks for the St. Louis Cardinals

Like so many times before, be it because of injury, mental lapse or plain old melt down, Carlos Martinez let the St. Louis Cardinals down once again. On this occasion it might very well be for the last time. I can’t see how the Cardinals, a team with at least seven better pitching options, can move forward with Martinez.

Martinez served as a shaky closer at points of the past two previous seasons — a job he complained about because he wants the glory and the big paycheck of being a starter — but the Cardinals have Jordan Hicks coming back from Tommy John surgery next year, Giovanny Gallego, Ryan Helsley and Alex Reyes as competitors for the closer role in 2021. All of them are more promising than Martinez.

With a likely payroll crunch next season thanks to COVID-19 and the lingering contracts of Matt Carpenter and Dexter Fowler — plus Andrew Miller now, too — Martinez and his $12 million paycheck would be a nice place to cut. However, as a final act, Martinez stunk it up so much Wednesday that I doubt he now has any trade value at all. The 28-year-old pitcher has a 9.90 earned run average in 2020 after giving up 32 hits in only 20 innings of work. He allowed a whopping 2.1 runners an inning and, while all the carnage certainly isn’t Martinez’s fault, he has a knack of making a bad situation worse.

I just don’t see where Martinez, who is under contract for next season and then has a pair of options — the first for $17 million and the second for $18 million — has a place on this club anymore. The inability to move his Martinez’s contract might prevent the Cardinals from getting the big bat they so desperately need this winter. Worse, it might prevent from the Cardinals from being able to re-sign beloved catcher Yadier Molina with a revenue stream dried up by the pandemic.

It’s a shame that things have never panned out for Martinez and the Cardinals. He’s a guy I’ve rooted hard for over the past few years. He had electric stuff that gave him ace potential. Then he lost his buddy Oscar Taveras in a tragic car crash and struggled to come back emotionally. He signed what appeared to be a team-friendly deal in order to provide for his grandmother who raised him and promised he was a changed man, that he’d found maturity that would help him reach the promise his talent gave him. But he seems like he was more interested in what color to dye his hair or his next tattoo than he was about playing baseball. Molina can do things like that because it’s obvious that he is all-in on baseball. He’s the first guy to the park and the last to leave when it seems like Martinez is always the last guy to report to spring training camp. Yadi plays hurt when Martinez seems to always be out with an injury. You have to earn the right to be colorful or else it’s just a distraction. And Martinez never was able to build a reputation as a guy who was willing to make the necessary sacrifices.

As it stands, the Cardinals might have to play a tough road double-header in Detroit in a desperate effort to make the postseason tournament. If Martinez could have contributed anything in his five starts, that might not have been necessary.

Hopefully some other team still believes in his potential and will take him off the Cardinals’ hands. As long as it’s not with the Cubs, Reds or Brewers, I’d still root for him to reach that potential and convince another team to pick up his pricy options. As for the Cardinals, I’d rather see a rotation of Jack Flaherty, Dakota Hudson, Reyes, Miles Mikolas and Adam Wainwright next season and that Martinez money put into the pot to find a clean-up hitter. It’s simply a classic case in which a change of scenery might be for the best for both sides.

Scott Wuerz

Belleville News-Democrat

Scott Wuerz has written “Cheap Seats,” a St. Louis Cardinals fan blog for the Belleville News-Democrat, since 2007. He is a former BND reporter who covered breaking news and education.