The Reds announced Monday that they have selected the struggling outfielder Noelvi Marte to Triple-A Louisville. The corresponding move has not been announced, but FOX 19’s Charlie Goldsmith reports that Cincinnati is expected to recall the outfielder. Rece Hinds from Louisville to Marte’s place.
24-year-old Marte’s run with the Reds has been full of peaks and valleys. The former top prospect came to Cincinnati as part of a blockbuster trade Luis Castillo he went to Seattle and exploded onto the MLB scene with a .316/.366/.456 batting line in his first 123 plate appearances in 2023 – his age 21 season. He was tested for an 80-game PED ban the following spring and looked lost in his return to the majors later in the season, slashing just .210/.248/.301 in 242 plate appearances.
Marte’s stock hit an all-time low after that 2024 campaign, and in 2025 he was moved from third base to right field for the deadline. It’s Bryan Hayes. Marte’s stock was declining, but he stepped into right field well, posting strong defensive marks while rebounding at the plate. He appeared in 90 games – 56 of them outfield – and hit .263/.300/.448 with 14 homers and 10 steals. Defensive Runs Saved gave him credit as a solid defender on the grass (+4), while Statcast’s Outs Above Average (-2) was very strong. Still, even a bad sign for an infielder who learned the field on the fly — during the season, at least — suggested he has the potential to develop into a solid defender there.
Partially overshadowed by this strong attempt to repeat in 2025, however, was a poor end to the season. Marte slashed .184/.214/.276 in his final 103 plate appearances of the season. He shot 33 times (32%) in just four minutes (3.9%).
Marte belted four homers in 56 plate appearances this spring, but he also continued that troubling K-BB streak from the end of the ’25 season. He walked just once this spring while striking out 16 times (28.6%). So far, his regular season output sits at just .138/.194/.138 with 10 strikeouts (32.3%) and two walks (6.5%) in 31 plate appearances. Marte doesn’t have anything like pitch recognition, striking out 47.4% of the games he’s seen out of the strike zone this year. That’s sixth-worst among the 290 MLB hitters who have entered the batter’s box at least 30 times this year. His bat speed of 71.5 mph is down nearly two miles per hour from last year’s 73.3 mph.
If there’s a silver lining to Marte’s struggles, it’s that he won’t turn 25 until after the season and is in the second of his three minor league starts. There is plenty of time for him to right the ship and get back on track. Even including his late-season slump, his rocky spring and his miserable start to 2026, we’re looking at a sample of less than 200 plate appearances. He made heavy contact during Cactus League play, and still sports a contact rate north of 90% on pitches inside the strike zone. It stands to reason that if Marte can reduce his strikeout rate to closer to the 33.7% he averaged from 2023-2025, he could once again emerge as a quality hitter. That would still be north of this year’s 29.5% league average, but not by an alarming rate.
From the point of service time, the demotion is likely to affect Marte’s potential path to free agency. He entered the season needing only 33 days on the injured list to reach two years of service. He has already passed through the center. He will likely return this season, which would make him eligible to hit the open market after the 2030 season (assuming he gets back on track and plays well enough to earn a six-year career). However, it may cost him in solving the problems. Marte was on a clear path to Super Two status, which would have made him eligible for compensation four times instead of the usual third, but if he spends significant time in the minors, he won’t reach the Super Two designation after all.
Instead of Marte, the Reds will apparently turn to the 25-year-old Hinds. He is a career .191/.245/.506 hitter in 95 plate appearances. He tended to strike out more in the majors (38.9%) than Marte during his slump, but Hinds has more power and is off to a good start in Louisville. He is slashing .354/.475/.771 with five trippers in his first 61 cracks at the plate. Even more encouragingly, he walked twelve times (19.7%) with 15 controllable strikeouts (24.6%). Hinds struck out over 37% of his pitches at the plate in Triple-A last year and nearly 40% in the majors. This year, he sits at an improved 31.3% rate in Louisville.
Hinds cracked Triple-A depth last year, too (.302/.359/.563) and flashed some 30-30 power with 24 big flies and 21 steals in just 107 games. It seems unlikely that he will make enough contact to reach that ceiling, but his potential is readily apparent and Statcast pegs him at a 98 percent field goal percentage in 2025. The power-speed combination is understandably appealing, and he’ll get another chance to show he can stick in the majors while Marte looks to return to Louisville.
