Jose Fernandez has a chance to be special.
Hall of Famer Pedro Martinez confirmed this notion Monday night by heaping some serious praise onto the Miami Marlins ace.
Fernandez, who turns 24 later this month, already is among Major League Baseball’s best pitchers, and it’s amazing to think where he’d be at this point in his young career if he didn’t miss a significant chunk of both the 2014 and 2015 seasons because of Tommy John surgery.
Fernandez is 33-13 with a 2.43 ERA, a 1.01 WHIP and 11.1 strikeouts per nine innings through 64 career starts. He’s been piling up strikeouts at an impressive clip this season, fanning 154 batters over 107 1/3 innings, an average of 12.9 K’s per nine frames.
Martinez, of course, is one of the greatest pitchers of all time. But even he took some time to evolve into a dominant hurler. He went 35-21 with a 3.25 ERA, a 1.15 WHIP and 8.8 strikeouts per nine innings in 121 appearances (56 starts) through his age 23 season. It wasn’t until two years later, at age 25, that Martinez won his first National League Cy Young Award, which Fernandez is in the running for this season alongside front-runner Clayton Kershaw.
Maybe Martinez is onto something.
Thumbnail photo via Steve Mitchell/USA TODAY Sports Images
