CINCINNATI (WXIX) – On the day that Noelvi Marte made his debut in right field in the middle of July, Cincinnati Reds manager Terry Francona joked that if this experiment didn’t work, blame outfield coach Collin Cowgill. Francona was kidding. But the truth was the no one knew whether or not the 23-year-old Marte would be able to manage a position change on the fly with a team that’s trying to win. Francona’s humor underscored the uncertainty of what was about to happen.
At the time, no one could have dreamed of Marte making the catch of the Reds’ season.
And here we are, on Sept. 25, with Marte delivering the type of play that’s going to need a nickname if the Reds end up making the playoffs. The Great American Robbery? The Leap 16 (Marte’s jersey number)? Jump Marte?
Marte robbed the game-tying homer in the top of the ninth inning on Thursday as the Reds beat the Pirates, 2-1. With the win, the Reds are a half-game back of the Mets in the playoff race.
“Under the circumstances, that’s one of the best plays I’ve ever seen,” Francona said. “After Marte, the guy I’m probably the happiest for is Collin Cowgill. He has worked so diligently with him over the last three months. That’s pretty cool.”
This is Marte’s moment, but it’s also a capstone to the best example of decision making and coaching of the entire Reds’ season. The Reds wouldn’t be here if they didn’t make the bold move to have Marte go from third base to right field in July.
Consider how much of a low point Marte was at before the move. He was one of the team’s best bats, but Marte showed jitters every time that he had to make the throw from third base to first. Eventually, Francona had to start pulling Marte from the game for defense when the Reds had the lead.
For most of July, Marte would take two at-bats and then sub out of the game whenever the Reds had the lead. That’s a demoralizing experience to go through.
So during the All-Star break, the Reds’ front office concluded that the team should like for a better defensive third baseman at the trade deadline. The Reds ended up acquiring Ke’Bryan Hayes, who likely will win the Gold Glove at third base this year.
Moving Marte to right field allowed him to take his least favorite part of the game — his throws to first base — off of his plate. It freed Marte up.
“It was a bit of a necessity,” Cowgill said. “We knew we needed to get better defensively on the infield and had an opportunity to get a better defender knowing that maybe it’ll free Marte up at the dish. And the quality of the athlete that we knew he was. We thought it would be a good fit for him all encompassing — mental and physical.”
The move sounded great on paper, but Marte is a young player who actually had to make the adjustment. On almost every game day, he was out on the field hours before the game with Cowgill learning the outfield. Sometimes, Cowgill hit fly balls to Marte off of the tee. Sometimes, Marte and Cowgill would practice reading balls off the bat together during batting practice.
A few weeks ago, they worked on robbing homers.
Slowly but surely, Marte picked up the outfield.
“I feel happy about myself,” Marte said via interpreter Tomas Vera. “All of the hard work that I put in and all of the early work, I see the results pay off. It makes me feel good.”
Moving players to the outfield doesn’t always work. Spencer Steer is serviceable in left field, but he’s much better at first base. The Reds have taken left field off of Gavin Lux’s plate and had him focus on second base and DH roles.
Look across the field this week at Pirates All-Star Oneil Cruz, who’s in his first full year in the outfield, has had a poor season and got hurt crashing into the wall on Wednesday.
“It’s a lot harder than people realize,” Steer said. “To play just an average outfield at the Major League level is tough. Doing it as a guy who has never done it before is even tougher. Hats off to (Marte) for doing it and having the attitude he has had about it.”
Marte has made his mistakes, and he’s still getting comfortable on fly balls over his head as well as ground balls that bang around the right field corner.
But he’s a playmaker. His arm strength is a real game-changer. And Marte can definitely jump.
“He’s a tremendous kid,” Cowgill said. “The confidence that he plays with out there is like he has played out there his whole life. That’s the type of person that he is. Couple that with a huge ceiling of talent, athleticism and now about six weeks of experience out there, you see the abilities start to creep out more.”
As the Reds picked up a 2-1 win, Marte also scored a run and drove in another. He’s the Reds’ No. 2 hitter. Even though he started the year in Triple-A coming off of a terrible 2024 season and even though he missed two months this year with an oblique injury, he still ranks third on the Reds in WAR despite playing in just 87 games.
Jose Trevino said that Marte’s home run robbery sums up his season.
“(There’s) just natural ability with him,” Trevino said. “To have the courage to be able to take on that task of being like, ‘You know what, I’m going to try this. I’m going to do it. I don’t care what people say. I don’t care if there are bad things that come from it. I don’t care what happens.’ There’s a courage to be out there and a willingness to have the guts to try that. It’s incredible.”
In the top of the ninth inning, Marte said that he jumped as high as he could. He stretched out over the wall and showed the tier of athleticism that no Red not named Elly De La Cruz can match.
Last year, when Marte was statistically one of the worst players in MLB and was coming off of a PED suspension, Reds coaches would point to his name in the lineup and asked “Who’s better than you?” It was meant to lift his spirits. There’s also some truth in it. Marte is one of nine players who are 23-or-younger who has an OPS of .775 or higher, and he has the upside to make multiple All-Star teams. But that’s all talk for down the road. On Thursday, the Reds just needed a win. And Marte — the young guy playing a position that was foreign to him a few months ago — saved the Reds’ season.
“I’ve never had this feeling before,” Marte said.
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