Martinez appeared in 10 games for the Yankees that season at the age of 24, not factoring in a decision while posting an earned run average of 4.26 over 12.2 innings of work.
He would go on to pitch another season and a half for the Yanks, pitching very well actually, before being traded as part of a blockbuster trade that saw New York send Rick Dempsey, Rudy may, Scott McGregor and Dave Pagan to the Baltimore Orioles for Doyle Alexander, Jimmy Freeman, Elrod Hendricks, Ken Holtzman and Grant Jackson on June 15th of 1976.
While the trade helped the Yankees short term, in the long-term it was Baltimore who came out on top of this swap, with Martinez, McGregor and Dempsey performing well for the team for a significant amount of years.
For Martinez, he’d pitch for 14-seasons in the Big Leagues, the first three with the Yanks, the next 11 for the Orioles, and one final campaign in 1988 with the Minnesota Twins for only three games.
Over that time he compiled a record of 55-42, with a 3.45 ERA over 546 appearances and 834 innings, with 115 saves, making his only All-Star team during the 1983 Orioles Championship season.
A steady reliever throughout the course of his career, I always seem to remember him at his best against the Yankees as a kid watching games throughout the 1980’s.