Friday links!
Noelvi Marte hit his way on to the Cincinnati Reds roster in 2023, stepping in when other infielders fell to injury and slashing a robust .316/.366/.456 in 123 PA at the big league level. The top prospect in the system picked up right where he’d left off when beginning play for the Gigantes del Cibao in the Dominican Winter League with hits in 7 of his first 17 PA across 4 games.
That was all the time he’d get on the field in the DWL, though, as a Grade 2 hamstring strain suffered at the end of November not only ended his on-field play for calendar year 2023, it set him back in his preparation for the 2024 MLB season. As Gordon Wittenmeyer of The Enquirer relayed from spring camp in Goodyear today, it appears that while Marte is close to being ready to roll, the Reds are going to bring him along in a more ‘deliberate, monitored’ fashion.
Marte isn’t going to play in any of the first 5 spring games the Reds play, and that’s that. Hopefully, he’s just fine to begin ramping up at that point, and neither player nor team seem worried that he won’t be ready when the regular season begins. Whether or not that has any factor in his status on the Opening Day roster remains to be seen, but roster crunches sure do tend to sort themselves out quickly when players in contention are either injured or recovering from injury (and have minor league options).
(Also, is it just me, or have the hamstring injuries the Reds have dealt with in the last few years more severe than in any other stretch? Perhaps I’m just haunted by Donovan Solano and Jonathan India missing months after theirs.)
In other news, Keith Law of The Athletic has Marte as the top prospect in the Cincinnati Reds system for 2024 – and ranked 17th overall within his Top 100. Dan Szymborski and his ZiPS supercomputer have Marte ranked 51st overall on the ZiPS Top 100 list, though it’s not Marte who’s the top ranked Red on the list.
Also from FanGraphs is this cool interview with Reds pitching prospect Rhett Lowder from David Laurila. Clearly, the kid is quite the thinker.
(I miss Joey Votto.)
MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon spoke with new Reds pitcher Nick Martinez, and after reading the piece I still don’t know whether to use new Reds starter Nick Martinez or new Reds reliever Nick Martinez. I think that’s kind of the point, though!
Finally, MLB is bucking their usual trend and actually doing something quite cool! The Spring Breakout games this March will feature something akin to prospect all-star teams assembled from within each franchise’s farm system, and they are slated for a game against another club. However, since there are an uneven number of Cactus League and Grapefruite League clubs, someone was inevitably get the chance to play twice, and the Reds were chosen as said Cactus League club. So, we’ll get to see the Reds Farm Globetrotters twice – once on March 14th (against the Baby Rangers) and again on March 16th (hosting the Guardianitos).