The Cuban closer Raidel Martínez joined a select group in the history of professional Japanese baseball this Sunday by completing his third consecutive season with 40 or more saves in the NPB, a milestone that only two pitchers had achieved before in the entire history of the league.
With his saved number 40 of the 2026 season with the Yomiuri Giants, Martínez became the third pitcher to achieve this streak, matching Hitoshi Iwase —who accomplished it with the Chunichi Dragons between 2005 and 2007— and Dennis Sarfate, who did so with the SoftBank Hawks between 2015 and 2017, according to Pelota Cubana on their social media.
The three campaigns of the player from Pinar del Río are a step up from each of the previous ones: 43 saves in 2024 with the Chunichi Dragons, 46 in 2025 with the Yomiuri Giants, and the 40 achieved this Sunday with the same team.
The milestone this Sunday is not the only one that Martínez has added in recent weeks. On September 10, the Cuban right-hander reached 250 career saves in the NPB, becoming the first foreign pitcher to achieve this figure in the Japanese league and opening the doors to the Meikyukai, the exclusive Club of Extraordinary Players of the NPB.
With the 252 saves accumulated as of this Sunday, Martínez has tied with the legendary Kazuhiro Sasaki for third place on the NPB's all-time list, which is led by Iwase himself with 407 career saves.
It is no small detail the speed with which the Cuban has climbed that chart: he reached 250 saves in 411 games, surpassing the pace set by Sasaki himself, who needed 435 appearances to reach that mark.
Born in Pinar del Río in October 1996, Martínez arrived in Japan in 2017 after signing with the Chunichi Dragons and established himself as one of the most dominant closers in the league for nearly a decade. In December 2024, he signed a record contract for Latino pitchers with the Yomiuri Giants, the most popular team in Japanese baseball, and since then, he has only furthered his legend.
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