Reds General Discussion 2026, Part 2

[Sea Ray]

Marty Brenneman was on WLW this morning and he said that the Reds asked him to play Winter ball this past Fall and he refused. Can you imagine Sal Stewart refusing such a request? He did not come to ST prepared. He's made no effort to learn English. I'm seeing signs of Willie Greene in this guy but he can go to Louisville and prove me wrong. My guess is that he's traded before the deadline this summer

[RedTeamGo!]

He's made no effort to learn English.

So? And how do you even know this?

[LiferJim]

Here’s my take on this Marte thing. Reds entered ST with an absence of lefty hitting. They paid $1.4 million for Bleday and they obviously weren’t sold on him, they sent him down.

Tito, being an experienced manager, knows you can’t have 6 consecutive RHH against RHP in the lineup every day. So Reds decided they would try Benson. He showed some power last year when much of the team had little power.

The obvious spots for Benson were RF or LF and they chose to keep Steer in the lineup over Marte. They used Marte against lefties because he was the remaining RHH outfielder. They know it’s been a weakness, but give it a try, he’s a young player and he needs the reps against LHP to become a complete hitter.

To me, the main problem is you don’t construct a roster this way. There is no team in baseball whose default lineup against RHP contains just two LHH. There was no perfect solution to this poor team construction. They now have to make some changes.

I definitely agree the roster was poorly constructed and it’s already reared its ugly head.


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[LeatherPants]

He's made no effort to learn English.

Can we just not? Can we just not do this type of thing?

[Tony Cloninger]

So they ruined him like Nick Senzel too? It’s never the players fault unless Fill in the blank poster dislikes that player. Marte is an even worse version of Karl Daniels. No production to justify it.

[Ron Madden]

The Reds need to pick a lane in right field

Terry Francona never defined who the Cincinnati Reds’ starting right fielder was going to be. He always said that it would work itself out. What was a platoon between Will Benson and Noelvi Marte during the first few games of the season turned into Marte getting more of the playing time vs. RHP.

What’s been happening at that position this season has been going very poorly. Marte is hitting .138 with a .332 OPS, and Benson is hitting .179 with a .567 OPS. It’s still a small sample size, Marte only has 29 at-bats this year, and Benson has 28 but there are extremes in their underlying metrics that aren’t encouraging.

Last August, Marte was the Reds’ best player. He has the upside to be an All-Star down the road. But in 2026 — and also in September of 2025 — he hasn’t been good.

Marte also has never been good in general versus LHP.

On the whole, Marte has made eight starts in right field this season, and Benson has made six. The upside is there with Marte and Benson, but they don’t look like their best selves right now. The two of them splitting time probably isn’t going to work.edit

https://charlieschalkboard.substack....-lane-in-right

[pedro]

Marte to AAA per Rosecrans. .

[LeatherPants]

Can we just not? Can we just not do this type of thing?

By the way, if it's a choice between learning English and working on your baseball skills I'd rather the player work on his baseball skills 100% of the time.

[RiverfrontRed]

Maybe Marte is just not good.

[NebraskaRed]

Hinds coming up, Marte going down.

[pedro]

Hinds coming up tomorrow

[Kc61]

I definitely agree the roster was poorly constructed and it’s already reared its ugly head.


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This is why I was ambivalent about trading Gavin Lux. I know he’s not a complete ballplayer. But he hit righties to the tune of .761 OPS. The most direct replacement to the lineup was Bleday, whom Reds acquired and then sent to AAA.

They added Lowe who has a good history hitting righties, but he’s essentially blocked at first base and DH. You can make room by benching Hayes, but then why did they trade for Hayes, giving up a good prospect and taking on his contract?

I give Reds credit for a pretty good off-season but it seems clear that they didn’t “cover all their bases.” At least in the broad sense (including outfield).

[mth123]

What vote of no confidence? They didn't acquire anyone over top of him. The job was his to earn.

https://www.fox19.com/2026/03/22/noe...h-this-spring/ -

He didn't earn it. Should they let him get away with failing to meet expectations in spring training because he had one good August? If it's being reported that he had a "slow start" in practices/workouts, that tells you that the guy either didn't have himself ready for camp or was just flat out dogging it in camp. Either way, that's on him.

In the grand scheme of things, a right-handed hitting batter who can't hit lefties and is a question mark in the field has little value. I agree with sending him down to work on those things. But this idea that the Reds have wronged him in some way because they are asking a right-handed hitter to hit lefties is silly to me. If we're saying he should be a reverse split platoon player, we're basically saying he's not a MLB caliber player because at some point you're going to find a left-handed hitting platoon bat who is going to put up better numbers.

I think Marte is a headcase who has way more talent than any of the other OF candidates (and it's not even close). If they are going to get something out of the talent (even if it's just a trade return) he should be put in a position to succeed. Marte had a 5.3 to 1 K/BB ratio last year and definitely comes with huge risk of failure. He also has a past of being suspended, looking completely unsure of himself when things go wrong (such as 2024 and his time as a 3B) and being the best returning bat on the roster vs RHP not named Elly. He's not had much success vs LHP (55 wRC+ in 2025 for example) and even the Reds themselves noted that he has a problem against them.

Why would they put a guy like that in a role like that? They know he's likely to fail and be a drag on the team's offense. They know he's been a guy who gets very uncomfortable when he's put in situations where he can't perform well (as evidenced by how he performed and their own assessment that he "wasn't relaxed" while playing 3B) and they know he's still a young player with a lot of potential and associated trade value. The last thing he and the team needed was for him to be pigeonholed in a role where they knew he was likely to fail. It's not like they put a guy with a history of success in there ahead of him vs RHP. I think he's been mishandled. It doesn't absolve him of his problems, but it certainly doesn't help the team or the player.

If they wanted to sit him for some transgression in practice, then sit him (or send him down). Don't stick him where he's at his worst. And please, don't try to convince me that a guy who has been a black hole vs RHP for two seasons in a row is a better choice.

[LiferJim]

Great that Hinds is coming up, but if he’s going to platoon and mainly hit against LHP, look for similar results that Noelvi had. Play Rece daily and please stop this Benson pipe dream!


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[Kc61]

Maybe Marte is just not good.

Could be. But when he’s selective at the plate he can hit. He uses the whole field, doesn’t sell out for power. Or didn’t sell out for power, maybe it’s the past tense. Or maybe he’s just not good, maybe too much analysis, could be right.