Reds outfielder Noelvi Marte has perfect fuel for a 2026 surge

Much of the Cincinnati Reds' offseason had to do with answering one big question — where could the club find sufficient pop to elevate the lineup? The position was almost irrelevant. The Reds had enough movable pieces that they could formulate a reasonable lineup regardless of the position the new slugger played.

The signing of Eugenio Suarez answered that bell. Suarez will be the primary DH while also getting some work in at the infield corners. For most, that seemed to be the answer to the biggest question.

However, according to ESPN, the Reds left something else unanswered as the outlet wondered aloud why Cincinnati didn't go after a new right fielder to replace Noelvi Marte. We're not so sure that replacing Marte was necessary (or would've been the right call), but this does open the conversation about the importance of 2026 for the exciting youngster's future.

ESPN's questioning of Noelvi Marte could lead to a breakout year for the Reds youngster

The crux of the argument laid out is that Marte has nearly 200 games of big league experience, but has an 86 OPS+, a career .294 on-base percentage, and negative defensive metrics to date. All are true statements, but they miss important context.

For one thing, there's been a lack of consistent opportunities for the 24-year-old. His 191 career games have been sprinkled over three seasons, with his career-high in games played coming last year with a paltry 90. Consistency is key for young players to develop, and Marte has yet to truly receive that sort of opportunity for various reasons.

Part of the reason why he only managed to appear in 90 contests last season was due to the oblique injury he suffered on May 5. The injury cost him nearly two months, but at the time he went down, he was slashing .294/.342/.515. That was just an 18-game sample size, but the early results were encouraging.

When he returned on July 4 through August 31, Marte hit .288/.328/.508. His brutal final month of the season, in which he posted a .502 OPS, depressed his overall stat line to a roughly league-average .263/.300/.448 mark, but it doesn't change the fact that Marte was good more often than not in 2025.

The claim of shoddy defensive metrics is a bit disingenuous. Yes, Marte struggled defensively at third and was bumped off the position when Cincinnati acquired Ke'Bryan Hayes at the trade deadline. He learned right field on the fly, logging just 437.1 innings out there in his first taste of outfield action.

While it certainly was a mixed bag, he also turned in some incredible highlight reel plays. Again, he didn't have any ramp-up time to train at a brand new position and was told to sink or swim. It seems unreasonable to hold that against him. With 93rd percentile arm strength and 89th percentile sprint speed, he has all the tools to succeed out there, and now with a whole offseason and spring training to learn how to be an outfielder, it's a very good bet that he puts those skills to work as a plus defender in 2026.

Marte is extremely well-positioned to prove the doubters wrong, as long as he can stay healthy and generate consistency. We forget, but some players are just breaking into the bigs at his age, yet he's already closing in on 200 games of major league experience. When you look at Noelvi, you can choose to either see the glass as half-empty or half-full, but when you look at what the data tells you, it becomes clear that leaning in an optimistic direction is more logical. That'll become especially true if the youngster hears this noise and decides to use it as fuel for a 2026 breakout.