Pedro Martinez Suggests Racism Was Factor in 1999 AL MVP Snub

Baseball Hall of Famer and current MLB Network analyst Pedro Martinez told ex-teammate David Ortiz and Barstool Sports' Jared Carrabis on the Call Him Papi podcast that he believed racism may have played a factor in him not winning the 1999 American League MVP Award.

Jordan Cohn of Audacy Sports provided Martinez's remarks, in part:

"You don't want to say you're racist, but sometimes you have to think, like, there are people that are racist. Because how can you give votes to people that didn't belong in MVP contention just to harm someone individually?"

"And I had nothing against those two guys. I've always been a professional, I've always been able to grant interviews, I've always been able to grant answers to your questions. And I don't know why two persons like that would just pick on one single person to just do that..."

As Brandon Contes of Mediaite noted, Martinez was referencing George King of the New York Post and La Velle E. Neal III of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, who left Martinez off their AL MVP ballots entirely.

"MVP is for everyday players. Pitchers have their own award," King said.

Martinez wondered why he couldn't even get a lower-ranked vote.

“I don’t know why two persons like that would just pick on one single person,” Martinez said on the podcast, per Contes.

“To just do that, to be that bad, out of 20 places that they have, each one of them—they couldn’t just give me a 19th-place vote?”

Martinez went 23-4 with a 2.07 ERA and 313 strikeouts in 213.1 innings. It's one of the greatest seasons in the modern game considering that Martinez posted that stat line that during the height of the steroid era. He also paced MLB with a 9.8 WAR that year, per Baseball-Reference.

Martinez won all 28 first-place votes to win the Cy Young unanimously, but he finished second in the AL MVP voting to Texas Rangers catcher Ivan Rodriguez. The top six vote-getters, in order, were Rodriguez, Martinez, Cleveland's Roberto Alomar and Manny Ramirez, Texas' Rafael Palmeiro and New York's Derek Jeter.

The only other pitcher to get MVP voting points was Yankees closer Mariano Rivera, who finished 14th.

No National League pitcher finished in the top 13 of the MVP voting. Arizona Diamondbacks left-hander Randy Johnson, who went 17-9 with a 2.48 ERA and an MLB-high 364 strikeouts, finished 14th.

Martinez earned the most first-place votes with eight, but he ultimately didn't have enough voting points to get the MVP. Regardless, he was the best player in baseball in 1999. He helped carry the Red Sox to a wild-card spot after a 94-68 season. Boston went 26-5 with him on the mound and 68-63 otherwise.

It's hard to argue his remarkable value, even if he didn't end up with the hardware.