Pedro Jaime Martinez (October 25, 1971-) spent 18 seasons as one of the most dominant Major League Baseball pitchers of all time. In 2004, he helped the Boston Red Sox win their first World Series in 86 years. The Los Angeles Dodgers signed Pedro as an amateur free agent in 1988; he made his MLB debut late in the 1992 season, joining his brother and fellow pitcher Ramon Martinez on the squad. Despite going 10-5 as a reliever for the team in 1993, he was traded to the Montreal Expos (1994-1997) where he continued as one the National League’s best pitchers. In 1997 he posted a 17-8 record and led the league in complete games (13) as well as in ERA (1.90), and won his first of three Cy Young Awards (1997, 1999, 2000). Such achievements, however, weren’t enough to ward off a trade to the Boston Red Sox, where in 1999 he delivered one of the greatest pitching seasons of all time, finishing 23-4 with a 2.07 ERA and 313 strikeouts, and taking the pitching Triple Crown. The next year he posted an incredible 1.74 ERA, the AL's lowest since 1978. His 2000 season stats also included league-leading shutouts (4) and strikeouts (284) with a 0.74 WHIP, breaking an 87-year-old modern Major League record set by Walter Johnson. His dominance continued through the early 2000s, and his regular and postseason appearances helped the BoSox reverse the “Curse of the Bambino” in 2004. In 2005, he signed with the New York Mets (2005-2008), and in his first season compiled a 15-8 record with a 2.82 ERA, 208 strikeouts, and a league-leading 0.95 WHIP. On September 3, 2007, he recorded his 3,000th strikeout -- becoming just the fourth pitcher (behind Fergie Jenkins, Greg Maddux, and Curt Schilling) to reach that mark with fewer than 1,000 walks. He spent one season with the Philadelphia Phillies (2009) before leaving the game after eight All-Star Game selections (1996-2000, 2002, 2005-2006), a 219-100 record, a 2.93 ERA, and 3,154 strikeouts. Pedro Martinez was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2015.
