The Reds are in agreement with reliever Yunior Marte on a minor league contract with an invite to big league Spring Training, reports Francys Romero. The righty would lock in a $1.05MM base salary if he breaks camp.
Marte is back in affiliated ball after spending the 2025 season in Japan. The Dominican-born hurler signed with NPB’s Chunichi Dragons last winter. He divided his time between the top level and their minor league club. Marte managed a 1.95 earned run average with a pair of saves and 11 holds over 32 1/3 innings for the NPB team. That came with a modest 19.1% strikeout rate and was heavily reliant on a .213 average on balls in play against him.
The 30-year-old (31 in February) pitched in the big leagues each year from 2022-24. Marte made 39 appearances for the Giants as a rookie and spent the next two seasons as an up-and-down middle reliever for the Phillies. He has a big arm, sitting in the 96-98 MPH range with his sinker. Marte missed a decent number of bats in the minors but has a below-average 20.1% strikeout percentage over 102 big league appearances. He owns a 5.64 ERA in 113 1/3 career frames.
Cincinnati has a solid late-inning group led by re-signed closer Emilio Pagán, Tony Santillan, Graham Ashcraft, Connor Phillips and Caleb Ferguson. They have a few openings in the middle innings and don’t have a ton of minor league depth. Tejay Antone is their only other currently healthy non-roster invitee who has MLB experience, though they’ll presumably try to get Keegan Thompson through waivers after he was designated for assignment last week.
The Marte rumors can now stop
This is the REAL Marte rumor.
Not the Marte fans were hoping for
We have Marte’s at home
Starling Marte signing incoming, Ketel Marte trade lined up, the reds must have all the Martes.
After a big season in Japan, I wonder why he would come back to the minor leagues?
You’re not thinking like an athlete. He’s not taking the easy path to a professional job. He’s betting on himself to make it back to the majors. That’s the mentality and the goal.
He only pitched 32 innings at the NPB big league level, the rest of the year he was in their minor league system.
Yunior Marte came to the Giants from the KC Royals for Mike Yastrzemski this year.
No.
Sorry, meant to say Not that Yunior haha
I know, I was just referring to the one with the same name lol
Another one to throw against the wall and hope he stinks.
Or sticks, that is. Freudian slip there lol.
The former is what usually happens with all the dumpster diving candidates the Reds drag up. I wish they would just sign Eugenio Suarez for a couple of years. The money they are paying Candelario to do nothing would pay for most of one of those years..They would have the power hitting protection for EDlC. He could DH most of the time seeing some time at 1B and 3B. The Reds can’t wait until near mid season to determine their long shot gambles on hitters haven’t worked. It is too deep a hole to dig out of.
That’s all pretty accurate. They’ve learned nothing. It’s highly likely we will have a good rotation, decent bullpen, and terrible offense. It’s basically last year all over again, maybe slightly worse. Highly unlikely they’ll overachieve enough to be true buyers at midseason.
You may remember his father, Senior Marte.
Was he unable to hit a bull in the a$$ with his pitches as well?
Krall dumpster diving once again. He will spend 10 million on 12 lottery tickets.
Fun fact: There are diving boards attached to every dumpster near the Reds’ front office.