Martinez declines offers

NEW YORK – Pedro Martinez’s phone has been ringing during the last two weeks.

Several major league teams – the three-time Cy Young Award winner won’t say which ones – called with offers to pitch. He was flattered by the invitations but turned them all down.

“Very tempting,” he said Thursday during an interview with the Associated Press, “but I have already committed to my kids for the rest of the year and going on vacations, and made plans already with the family.”

Martinez, 38, signed in July 2009 with Philadelphia, his fifth team in a big league career that began in 1992. He went 5-1 with a 3.63 ERA in nine starts down the stretch and reached the World Series for the second time.