MESA, Ariz. -- The last time Nick Martinez started a game, there were 47,534 fans roaring in the seats of Chase Field at the World Baseball Classic. On Sunday, there were approximately two dozen Padres fans bundled up at the club’s Minor League fields on a blustery afternoon.

Martinez was back at Padres camp to start a game against Rangers Minor Leaguers, rather than gearing up for a potential appearance in the semifinals or championship game for Team USA -- yet he was right where he wanted to be.

“I couldn’t really risk waiting around to see if I was going to pitch or not,” Martinez said, with the U.S. having tabbed Adam Wainwright to start Sunday’s semifinal contest. “Disappointing, but still happy I got that opportunity and definitely appreciative that I got to put on that uniform and compete again for them.”

The prior two major international tournaments (2020 Tokyo Olympics, 2023 WBC) for Team USA have both featured starts from Martinez -- a role he is adamant on reclaiming moving into the start of the 2023 campaign, and in order to do so, he needed to get his pitch count up.

Martinez worked four-plus scoreless innings Sunday, compiling six strikeouts while scattering five singles. He was tremendously efficient, peppering the zone with 47 of his 63 pitches going for strikes. He struck out a trio of top Rangers prospects -- No. 2 Evan Carter, No. 7 Justin Foscue and No. 8 Dustin Harris -- in order.

“It can kind of light that fire under your butt to kind of get things going,” Martinez said of his WBC experience. “I can definitely use that energy to propel me forward.”

Manager Bob Melvin indicated that the right-hander was on line to make a turn through the rotation during the season’s opening week.

“We ramped him up a little bit before he had gone,” Melvin said of Martinez’s workload. “We’ll look at maybe one more [Spring Training start], and I think we’re in good shape with him."

After a four-year sojourn in Japan, Martinez has returned a different pitcher than the one that left following the 2017 Major League season. 

“It’s definitely been a wild ride, a pretty cool journey being in Japan for four years,” Martinez said. “My last year [I was] accepting that I may be out there the rest of my career, and then leveraging that into a contract with the Padres and then being with a group of guys that is really fun to play with, to having a postseason run and enjoying that even more, to then finding myself playing again for Team USA. I wouldn’t have thought I’d be here two years ago, that’s for sure."

Teheran makes bid
Right-hander Julio Teheran returned to form in his start against the Cubs, allowing just one run on two hits over 3 2/3 frames in Sunday’s 5-2 loss at Sloan Park. The outing is a bounce-back showing from his last two appearances, which accounted for eight runs in seven innings.

“I’m just trying to do my best every time I’ve got the ball,” Teheran said. “We’ll see what’s going to happen. Obviously, I want to be part of this great team we’re going to have, and like I said, I don’t have any pressure at all. I’ve been through this situation before, but I’m excited to be a part of it.”

With Joe Musgrove on the comeback trail and Martinez and Yu Darvish returning from the World Baseball Classic, there isn’t likely an open slot in the starting rotation for Teheran, an 11-year veteran. Even having made just four of his 240 big league appearances out of the bullpen, a long relief role hasn’t been ruled out for the 32-year-old.

“We’re probably going to need several guys -- at least a few guys -- that can give us true length,” Melvin said of Teheran. “It’s not necessarily a starting role for him, it could be just as much as anything we need to make a team.”