There are two words that no pitcher ever wants to hear: Tommy John. Hofstra University baseball team’s Carlos Martinez was forced to sit out a season following his breakout sophomore campaign because of them.
Just after earning First Team All-Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) honors, the pitcher was out for the 2025 season.
In his sophomore year, Martinez tossed to a 4.02 ERA across 78.1 innings. He ranked third in the conference in strikeouts with 95 and transitioned from a bullpen arm to a weekend starter. However, he missed the entirety of the 2025 season recovering from Ulnar Collateral Ligament (UCL) surgery, also known as Tommy John surgery.
Being an active member and leader of the team is important to Martinez. He had to adjust to the new role thrown at him as a vocal leader on the sidelines during the 2025 season.
“It was a difficult role to have, just because I was one of the leaders on the team, but it was also, at the same time, hard for me to communicate, knowing that I’m on the sidelines and everybody else is playing,” Martinez said. “Just trying to get comfortable with being a leader in that situation was a little difficult, but it was something that I did overcome.”
While adjusting to a new role on the team, Martinez had to undergo rehab on his elbow. The recovery process for Tommy John surgery is long and grueling; it usually stretc over at least 12 months. Martinez had to focus on attending physical therapy so that he could get back on the mound.
“It was really tough mentally, mostly,” Martinez said. “You go into physical therapy, and you go twice a week and try to make the most of it, try to get stronger, make sure that my arm’s feeling okay. You’ll have those days where some days it doesn‘t feel too good, and then some days that it feels amazing. Sometimes you just gotta keep a level head throughout the process because you never know how you’re really gonna be feeling the next day.”
While recovery in physical therapy focuses on regaining strength, maintaining a positive mindset throughout the process is its own mountain to climb. For Martinez, the team helped him overcome the mental battle of recovery.
“I think I just needed to trust myself, knowing that I was gonna put in the hard work to get better and get on the field and help the guys win games,” Martinez said. “So, just having them behind me really [helped] me get through the process.”
Martinez wasn’t alone during his arm’s rehab. He had teammates who went through the same surgery, so he picked their brains on ways to make it through.
“I definitely asked [my teammates], even previous guys that were on the team before, just kind of seeking advice, seeing what they did [on a] day-to-day basis, just to pick certain situations out to see if it would work for me,” Martinez said.
The team was not the only source of motivation for Martinez. Pitching coach Chris Rojas was another shoulder to lean on during Martinez’s journey back to the bump.
“[Rojas has] always, always been reliable,” Martinez said. “You can text him, call him whenever you need, and he’ll be there. He always checked in on me. [He] would always say, ‘Hey, if you need anything, just let me know,’ so I always had confidence that if I needed something out of him, he would be there and help it.”
After a year of recovery, Martinez took the rubber for the first time against No. 4/6 Mississippi State University on opening day. Despite not pitching in regular-season action for an entire season, Martinez was trusted with the ball against one of the best teams in the nation.
“[Getting the opening day start] means everything to me,” Martinez said. “I mean, I’ve been waiting a year to go out there and play, so the fact that I can get into the first game and go out there and show them that I’ve been working hard … just proved to everybody that I belong on a field with a team like that.”
Martinez had a strong first outing back in blue and gold, twirling 3.2 innings and fanning five hitters.
The first start was just the beginning – Martinez still had to monitor his health and ramp up before going deep into the games. Martinez started the season tossing 68 pitches against the Bulldogs and increased his pitch total by approximately 15 pitches every one to two weeks, depending on how his arm felt.
Martinez logged 98 pitches on March 27, a little over a month after his first start of the season. After that start, he recorded three straight outings tossing 100 or more pitches.
While Martinez has gotten back to dealing on the mound, he still prioritizes his elbow health.
“I make sure that I go for treatment,” Martinez said. “We have one of the best trainers in the school, so [I’m] making sure I see her a decent amount of time, just doing any physical therapy stretches or exercises that I need to do to keep to the strength of my elbow.”
Martinez looked stellar in his outing on Friday, April 17, against the CAA’s second-best hitting team, UNC-Wilmington. Martinez allowed just one earned run on seven hits while striking out a career-best 15 batters across 6.2 innings.
“[Pitching against UNCW] felt great,” Martinez said. “It felt like the outings previously felt like I was making steps, and that outing kind of gave me the confidence that I’m starting to get back into where I was [in 2024], and I think it’s gonna lead to bigger things.”
Martinez also threw the most pitches he has yet this season against the Seahawks, with 116 pitches.
As someone who went through the recovery process, Martinez has a unique point of view on it. As a leader, he used his experience to help those on his team who are currently dealing with their own recovery journeys from UCL surgery.
“I try to give the best advice that I can to anybody that needs help,” Martinez said. “Whenever they have a question or anything like that, I’m always willing to help.”
Martinez is a huge piece in the Pride’s starting rotation this season, primarily serving as the Friday starter during weekend series. Currently, Hofstra sits one place out of a playoff spot and down the stretch are looking to make the final push to be true contenders.
“I’m very confident in the guys,” Martinez said. “I think we just need to play with a lot more intensity, and when that intensity shows up, I feel like there’s not many teams that could beat us in any type of scenario.”
The Pride made the CAA tournament in 2024 and missed last season with Martinez recovering. In Martinez’s start in the 2024 tournament against the College of Charleston, he threw 5.2 innings, only giving up one run and striking out five. Martinez is confident that this Hofstra team is capable of going all the way and wants to put people on notice.
“You should just watch out for Hofstra baseball,” Martinez said. “We’re coming for the ‘chip.’”
