Pawtucket’s Edgar Martinez has made the jump from catcher to pitcher.

AP / Steven Senne

PAWTUCKET — Versatility is a key asset to have for a minor-league baseball player trying to make it to the majors.

It’s not unusual for a player to learn multiple positions in order to fight for a spot on a major-league ball club.

But you don’t see too many catchers making the transition from behind the plate to the pitcher’s mound. In fact, few players make the transition from a fielding position to pitcher after they make it to the minor leagues.

PawSox pitcher Edgar Martinez, however, made the difficult leap from catcher to pitcher and his career has blossomed since making the switch in 2004.

Martinez was signed as an undrafted free-agent catcher by the Red Sox in 1998. He started his professional career in 1999 for the Gulf Coast Red Sox and never rose above the Single-A level until his conversion from catcher to pitcher.

After mixing his 97-mph fastball with his changeup and slider to post a 2.10 ERA with seven saves and 46 strikeouts in 34.1 innings for Class-A Wilmington in 2005, he was promoted to Double-A Portland later that year, where he finished with a 1.50 ERA, one save, and 13 strikeouts in 18 innings.

In 2006, Martinez posted a 5-3 record with a 2.61 ERA for Portland in 69.1 innings before being promoted to Pawtucket last year.

He struggled against the more advanced hitting in Triple-A last season (2-6, 5.16 ERA), but he is finding his groove this season, even though he as been called into action at the last minute before several of his outings this year.

He entered yesterday’s game against Columbus with a 2-1 record and a 4.34 ERA while holding opponents to a .251 batting average. More importantly, he had a 1.93 ERA (3 ER, 14 IP) in his previous three starts.

Due to the injury of starting pitcher Kyle Snyder, who has been on the disabled list since June 3 with a groin strain, Martinez was thrust into a starting role yesterday and he didn’t disappoint.

Martinez kept the Columbus batters off-balance, allowing just three hits and two runs while striking out seven in 5 2/3 innings of work, but didn’t factor in the decision in Pawtucket’s, 8-6, 10-inning victory.

Pawtucket manager Ron Johnson said that he couldn’t have asked for more from Martinez.

“He did a nice job,” Johnson said. “…I can’t say enough about the outing. He was outstanding.”

Martinez couldn’t have started out the game any better than he did. He struck out Columbus leadoff batter Ray Olmedo on three pitches, and he did not allow a hit in the first inning (one walk).

He was cruising along until the sixth inning when he gave up a two-run home run to Alex Escobar that tied the game at 2-2.

Of the 82 pitches that Martinez threw, 52 of them were for strikes. He walked two batters and hit two more.

It wasn’t the first time this season he was thrown into action. He was a late substitute for Charlie Zink on June 6 at Charlotte and was the winning pitcher in a 7-4 victory over the Knights (5 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 1 BB, 4 K).

He made a last-minute start in place of David Pauley on April 20 and tossed 4 1/3 scoreless innings in a 5-1 Pawtucket victory over Buffalo. That was his first professional start after 147 relief appearances.

“We had some situations where we had some starters go down,” Johnson said. “…We kept using Edgar, and he kept going into the ball games rolling for three, four, five innings.”

Johnson said it was a no-brainer to use Martinez as a starter when they needed one in an emergency.

“It was like, ‘let’s throw Edgar in there. He’s kind of a bull. Let’s see what he can do,’” Johnson said. “And he’s been great. We’re going to keep bringing him out there and we’ll see what happens.”

roblee@projo.com