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.