T-minus 9 days until the trade deadline.
After over 300 games as a professional (and over 2600 career innings spent in the field), Noelvi Marte started a game as an outfielder on Sunday.
He did just fine, albeit in incredibly limited action out there in New York. He fielded the one grounder hit his way that made it through the infield, and he even got to show off his big arm on a throw back to the dirt. That’s surely what the Cincinnati Reds have in mind for him for the time being – to hide him out there a bit, let him get his feet wet, and put him in a position to slowly show them whether corner outfield is something that’s in his repertoire.
It’s a story that’s similar to that of another Cincinnati Reds infielder-outfielder.
Before starting 48 games in corner outfield spots back in 2023, Spencer Steer had logged a grand total of one (1) game as a RF across his minor league career. That didn’t stop the Reds from chucking him out in LF just as often as they started him at 3B that season, leaning hard into his versatility to help unlock a lot of what else they had coming up through the minors to their lineup, too.
That ‘what else’ included Marte, by the way. Now, it seems the Reds may well be giving him the Steer treatment to see just how many spots they’ll have available for other faces as they make their way to the Reds. What, you aren’t buying that they’re merely trying to get Santiago Espinal’s bat into the lineup against LHP?
To me, it seems very much like the first part of a three-part plan, and that being the basic ask of can he actually play RF?
If he can – and I tend to think he can, passably – then the Reds suddenly have the ability to look for another bat who can fill in positions that mirror Marte. If all Marte could do, after all, was play 3B, you can’t really go shopping for another 3B without creating a problem. It’d be much the same if all he could do was play RF, as that would prevent the Reds from shopping for an additional bat who only plays RF as they hunt a playoff spot in 2025.
That’s the second part of this plan, by the way – figuring out how Marte’s ability to play some RF helps them get better in 2025. Ideally, that means Marte still has a spot to play when the Reds go reacquire Eugenio Suarez and install him as their 3B. Or, it simply adds depth all over, and when the Reds go acquire Randal Grichuk to play RF when the team’s up against a LHP, Marte slides back to 3B as a significant upgrade offensively over Espinal.
Marte’s flexibility opens up the Reds search to a much wider audience, for one. It also helps the team’s bargaining power when trade talks begin – no longer to all teams have the ability to leverage the Reds lack of a RHH corner OF when at the table.
Part three of this plan is the long-game. Much like with Steer each year, Marte may well walk into spring camp in 2024 knowing he can play all over the place – and therefore not knowing where he’ll play most any given day. That’s if this all ends up working out, of course, as the flexibility sure would be nice. It would be especially nice when Sal Stewart shows up in camp, too, as a guy who’s much more likely to be a 3B option only than Marte.
The Reds seem to be doing this to not only get themselves a better bat in the lineup now, but to also open up the ability to be a better overall lineup in two weeks and in two years. Let’s just hope it’s the first move that unlocks a series of moves that let’s it all happen.