The Cincinnati Reds have added right-handed reliever Yunior Marte to the organization according to Francys Romero. He reports that the Reds have signed him to a minor league contract.
Marte spent 2022-2024 pitching out of the bullpen for the San Francisco Giants and Philadelphia Phillies, but in 2025 he pitched in Japan for Chunichi. In the NPB things can be a little confusing as their minor league system carries the exact same names for the teams. I mention that because Yunior Marte spent time pitching in the NPB big leagues and minor leagues in 2025. He was very good in both, and actually had a lower ERA at the highest level where he posted a 1.95 ERA in 35 games. He threw 32.1 innings with 11 walks and 25 strikeouts. While pitching for Chunichi in the minor leagues he had a 2.45 ERA in 14.2 innings, walked no one, and had 23 strikeouts. In the middle of December he joined Licey in the Dominican Winter League for the final two weeks of the regular season and he didn’t allow a baserunner in any of his five 1-inning outings.
In his parts of three big league seasons he threw 113.1 innings and had an ERA of 5.64. The right-handed pitcher gave up 128 hits, 16 home runs, walked 54, and struck out 105. His home run rate got worse with each season. In 2024 his walk rate and strikeout rate were both the worst of his three years. You can see his career stats here.
While pitching in Japan his control was much better. We don’t have any pitch tracking related data to look at for his time pitching with Chunichi. But we do have some from the last three weeks in the Dominican Winter League. It doesn’t appear that he has picked up a new pitch. But he is throwing significantly softer than he was while pitching stateside in his career. He averaged 97-98 MPH in his three seasons from 2022-2024. Over his five games with Licey this month he’s averaged just under 94 MPH and has topped out just over 95 MPH.
He’s reached triple digits in the past, and as recently as 2024 he was among the top 10% of hardest throwers in baseball with at least 20 innings pitched. The Reds are likely hoping that they can help him find that kind of velocity again but also get the guy who threw more strikes while pitching in Japan and have a useful bullpen arm.
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