Raidel Martinez

Raidel Martínez is one of the better arguments in Japanese baseball for patience. He arrived from Cuba as a barely known prospect rather than a marquee import brought in to fix a pitching staff, and he improved in small increments year after year until he was among the most feared closers in Nippon Professional Baseball. That is not the usual foreign-player story here. The standard script is a proven veteran arriving with expectations attached, who either delivers immediately or is gone within two seasons. Martínez was developed in Japan, by Japanese coaching, and became a star inside the league instead of importing a reputation into it. By the time he owned the ninth inning for the Chunichi Dragons, his walk to the mound effectively ended games. At 190 cm he throws on a steep downhill angle: hard fastballs, and out of the same arm slot, something that drops off the table. It is a simple two-pitch plan, and simple is precisely why it works, because hitters know what is coming and still cannot do much with it. He now pitches for the Yomiuri Giants, which is about as high-profile a move as a relief pitcher can make in this country and a fair measure of what he built. Born October 11, 1996. Nearly a decade in Japan, and still the man no visiting dugout wants to see warming up.

Name (English)

Raidel Martinez

Name (Japanese)

ライデル・マルティネス

Reading

らいでる・まるてぃねす

Born

October 11, 1996 (age 29)

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Libra / Rat

Origin

Cuba

Height

190 cm

Occupation

baseball player

Motto

Private

• Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/raidelmartinez92/
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%A9%E3%82%A4%E3%83%87%E3%83%AB%E3%83%BB%E3%83%9E%E3%83%AB%E3%83%86%E3%82%A3%E3%83%8D%E3%82%B9

Tags

• baseball player

Last updated

2026-07-26

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.