Cubans Raidel Martínez and Liván Moinelo this week won the Central League save title and Pacific League ERA title, respectively, in what is still the final stretch of the 2024 NPB regular season. Martínez, who just completed his sixth season with the Chunichi Dragons, led his circuit with 43 saves, which not only represents a new record for a Latin pitcher but also the fourth highest total in the history of Japanese professional baseball.
His 43 saves are fourth-highest total in history of the league in that statistical category. Martínez, therefore, this year became the third pitcher to reach that total in history of the circuit. The right-hander from Pinar del Río, Cuba thus secures his second Central League save title in 3 years, after having also won the crown in 2022 with 39 saves.
Curiously, on both occasions he beat out the young right-hander of the Hiroshima Carps Ryoji Kuribayashi. Martínez has just completed the seventh year of his contract with Chunichi (he debuted in the NPB with that club in 2018) and will become the most coveted free agent in Japan this winter, so the fight to sign him promises to be a very intense one.
As for Moinelo, who has just completed his eighth season on the Japanese circuit, the ERA title he has just won in the Pacific League is truly impressive, because he achieved the feat as a starter The left-hander who is from the same city as Martínez in Cuba debuted in the NPB with SoftBank in 2017 and until last year had established himself as one of the best middle relievers in Japan, with the ability to also close games when necessary.
However, this year he was converted to a starter with the hope that he could help the organization in that department, but without any certainty that the experiment would be successful. In the end, the young southpaw exceeded all expectations. In his first start of the season, on March 30, he pitched completely, despite taking the loss after allowing two runs and three hits in eight innings of work.
Then, in his next 2 outings, he earned his first win and did not concede a run in 14 innings. His performance remained so consistent that he was named Most Valuable Pitcher of the Pacific League in the month of June after posting a 3-0 record and an ERA of 0.67 in four starts, in which he also added 34 strikeouts. Shortly after, he took over the circuit’s earned run average lead and did not let go until the end, closing the year with an impressive record of 1.88, which was 29 points better than his closest competitor, the young lefty from the Seibu Natsuki Lions Natsuki Takeuchi.