Noelvi Marte’s Start to His Career and His Suspension
Noelvi Marte’s major league career has not been off to a great start. Coming onto the scene for the first time in August of 2023 it looked like Marte would be a great player for years to come, hitting .316/.366/.456 in just 35 games he started in the 2023 season even ending off the season with a 13 game hitting streak. It looked like Marte was heading for a great 2024 season with the potential to win the National League Rookie of the Year.
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Unfortunately, news came out just before the start of Spring Training that Marte was found to be using PEDs or Steroids. He was suspended for 80 games in the 2024 season, thus ending any thought of him winning the Rookie of the Year award and hurting the Reds significantly, who would be without their rising star third basemen for half the season.
Marte’s 2024 Major League Season
On June 11, 2024 Marte was finally cleared to resume baseball activities and was sent on an assignment to the Triple A Louisville Bats. High hopes remained, but while in Louisville Marte performed very poorly with a slash line in 12 games of .151/.151/.170. These numbers were obviously disappointing, leading to some fans questioning if they should leave him down there for a while to let him get his feet under him. However, Marte returned to the Reds lineup following his 80 game suspension on June 27th in the first of a 4 game series against the Cardinals at St. Louis. In his first game back, it looked as if his troubles in Louisville were left behind him. Marte had a great first game back, tallying 3 hits, scoring 3 times, and driving in a runner on a double in the top of the 3rd.
However, Marte’s struggles quickly came back and he regressed. Marte went on to struggle immensely throughout the rest of the season tallying in 66 games a slash line of .210/.248/.301. These numbers were significantly worse than what every fan had hoped for out of the 23 year old rookie. It is unclear of course whether or not the suspension got to him and caused him to start playing poorly, but one could assume that the suspension definitely caused some lack of confidence.
Marte’s Rough start to the Winter League
On November 12, 2024 Marte made his Winter League debut in the Dominican Republic. We all hoped this would be a good way for Marte to build up some confidence ahead of the 2025 season and get his feet back under him and right the ship. Unfortunately, his struggles have continued, with him hitting in just 23 games .221/.299/.325 with only 5 extra base hits. Most recently, in his game just yesterday, December 16, 2024, going 0-5 with 3 strikeouts. Things are not looking promising for the 23 year old getting ready to go into his second professional season of baseball.
Fans are starting to lose faith in him with some suggesting we trade him for an OF bat or a pitcher. I personally do not think this would be wise, however, due to the fact that he is still young and has shown he has the potential to be great. Are his struggles concerning? Yes, but I don’t think we should write him off just yet. While we all hope he can overcome his struggles at the plate, it is definitely something to keep an eye out for throughout the rest of his winter league season and spring training.
Krall’s take on Marte and what we as fans can expect.
During the last week of the 2024 regular season, Nick Krall, Brad Meador, and Freddie Benavides (who was the acting manager at the time) sat down with Marte and had a conversation with him about his season and where it went wrong. “We had a direct conversation with him about where his year went sideways, what he needed to do and where he needed to grow to become a big league third baseman on a regular basis,” Krall said. “It’s something he understood. He understood where he was. He’ll have to make those adjustments and come into spring training to win a job.” Krall told Charlie Goldsmith.
Krall also noted in his conversation with Charlie that the suspension was obviously the start of his poor 2024 season and what led to it being so poor. This conversation also gave fans insight into the fact that Marte will be competing for a roster spot at the start of the 2025 season. As fans, while Marte is obviously struggling and it is concerning, I think we should not give up on Marte just yet. I still believe he is a good ballplayer who can and will bounce back from this season, especially with the help of new manager Terry Francona who should be able to help lead Marte in the right direction towards becoming a great ballplayer. Noelvi Marte has already shown the glimpses of the great ballplayer he is and can be, we all just have to be patient and give him some time.
This is a stellar first article, Jonathan! Good job on covering all the bases (pun intended). Hopefully Marte can pick up the pieces and have clean success in the near future.
Thanks! Yeah definitely hoping he can figure it out and help us out in future seasons.
Well said, we’ll have to see what happens to Marte.
hopefully he’ll actually be able to get some rest and come back in ’25 on fire
Epic piece of work!!
Thanks!
Welcome aboard, nice first piece!
I’m definitely worried about Marte ..