ShareThisNow that it appears Pedro Martinez's run with the New York Mets is done, somebody's got to say it.
Might as well be me.
So here goes ...
He wasn't worth it.
He wasn't worth the four years his former team, the Boston Red Sox, refused to give him. He wasn't worth the $53 million the Mets gave him.
Simply put: Pedro failed.
Not entirely, though.
To be fair, his heralded arrival at Shea in 2005 did get folks excited on the National League side of the city and allowed the Mets to grab their share of back-page headlines. And signing Pedro gave Omar Minaya instant credibility as a general manager, especially with marquee players from Latin America.
(It's silly to say, however, that Carlos Beltran signed with the Mets because Pedro was there. They were the only team foolish enough to offer him $119 million.) But Pedro was being paid to be more than a Pied Piper.
He came with a promise -- the promise of something more, something special, something that would lead the Mets out of the Yankees' pinstriped shadow and back to the World Series.
And he failed to deliver.
Instead, he did what everyone, except the Mets and their frustrated fans, expected.
He broke down.
He spent significant time on the disabled list during each of the past three seasons, making only 25 starts the last two.
First, there was a sore hip. Then a torn calf muscle. Then a torn rotator cuff that kept him out of the 2006 playoffs and wiped out all but the final month of the 2007 season. Finally, there was a strained hamstring that kept him off the mound for two months in 2008.
Only in his first season with the Mets did Pedro put up numbers worthy of his paycheck, posting a 15-8 record in 31 starts with four complete games, 208 strikeouts and a 2.82 ERA.
The last three? In 48 starts, he was 17-15 with no complete games and a 4.22 ERA. He made only five starts in 2007, and his 5-6 showing in 2008 marked the first time since 1992, when he was 0-1 as a September call-up, that he finished a season with a losing record.
It's no surprise, then, that the Mets reached the playoffs only once in Pedro's four years in New York. And when they did -- they won 97 games and the NL East title in 2006 -- calf and shoulder injuries prevented him from pitching in October.
So not only was he a ho-hum 9-8 with a 4.48 ERA that season, but he wasn't able to help when his team needed him most.
Anyone doubt that the outcome of the 2006 NL Championship Series, won by the St. Louis Cardinals on a ninth-inning home run by Yadier Molina in Game 7 at Shea, would've been different with a healthy Pedro pitching for the Mets? Anyone doubt that the Mets, too, would've stomped the Detroit Tigers in the World Series? But Pedro failed to deliver.
Failed in 2006, when injuries kept him out of the playoffs.
Failed in 2007, when he came back in September but couldn't stop the Mets' slide into infamy.
Failed again in 2008, when another injury cost him 10 starts that probably cost the Mets the playoffs.
And he failed exactly as the smart baseball people said he would: He broke down.
That doesn't mean Pedro wasn't once a great pitcher. He was one of the premier pitchers of his time, a three-time Cy Young Award winner with a 214-99 record, 3,117 strikeouts and a 2.91 ERA. He's a shoo-in for the Hall of Fame.
But the Mets got too little from him -- because they got him too late. For too long. For too much money.
So there's no way to say this nicely: He wasn't worth it.
(Ray McNulty is sports columnist for Scripps Treasure Coast (Fla.) Newspapers, The Stuart News, Fort Pierce Tribune and Vero Beach Press Journal. On the Web at www.tcpalm.com.)
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