Boston Red Sox Sign Pedro Martinez, Again

The Boston Red Sox re-signed Pedro Martinez, this time to be a special assistant to General Manager Ben Cherington, the Boston Globe reports.

Back in December, Martinez expressed an interest in returning to the game in some capacity. Martinez last played Major League Baseball in 2009 with the Philadelphia Phillies.

According to Cherington, Martinez will be involved with evaluation, mentorship and instruction of players in Spring Training and during the season. Pedro is already familiar with Red Sox pitching prospect Rubby De La Rosa, whom he knows from living near him in the Dominican Republic.

"It is an honor to be back with the Red Sox and help in any way I can," Martinez said. "I am grateful to our leaders; I believe in them, and I thank them for allowing me to return to the field and help us win again. My heart will always live in Boston.

Pedro spent seven seasons in a Red Sox uniform as one of the most dominant pitchers ever. His performance through the heat of the steroid era in baseball peaked with a 1.74 ERA in 2000, which was about half of the league average. He won two Cy Young Awards and made four All-Star Game appearances while playing for Boston. In the final year of his Beantown tenure, Martinez and his teammates ended an 86-year drought by winning the 2004 World Series.

Martinez has the second-highest winning percentage of all pitchers with at least 200 wins, trailing only Hall of Famer and former New York Yankees pitcher Whitey Ford. Among less traditional pitching statistics (coincidentally ones valued by the sabremetric movement made by the Red Sox and other organizations), Martinez has the lowest rate of average walks and hits allowed per inning pitched (WHIP) of any player in the live-ball era. He recorded the best ever earned run average weighted for his ballpark and the average pitcher in the league (ERA+) in the live ball era as well.

Martinez' former battery mate, catcher Jason Varitek, has a similar role within the Red Sox organization as a special assistant to Cherington. Varitek retired last year, as did another former Sox pitcher, Tim Wakefield.