The Cincinnati Reds are promoting top infield prospect Noelvi Marte to the majors, according to Robert Murray of FanSided. Marte, originally acquired last summer as part of the Luis Castillo trade with the Seattle Mariners, will be making his big-league debut whenever he appears in his first game.
Marte, 21, has split the season between Double- and Triple-A. Overall, he's batted .279/.358/.454 with 11 home runs, 45 RBI, and 18 stolen bases. Though he saw most of his action at shortstop in Double-A, he had started exclusively at the hot corner since being moved up to Triple-A in late June.
CBS Sports ranked Marte as the 16th-best prospect in the minors earlier this summer. Here's what we wrote at the time:
We know, we know. Marte is all but certain to move to third base on a permanent basis sooner than later, and he's absolutely a streaky hitter. It's perfectly reasonable to be lower (arguably much lower) on him than this. We just can't help ourselves because, bottom line, he's a 21-year-old infielder with oft-demonstrated contact and power chops. What's more is that Marte has continued to produce this season in Double-A, even while the league experiments with a tacked ball that has led to a depressed hitting environment. Our optimism about him may end up aging poorly, but, then, that's true of most prospect analysis.
Marte is the latest in a string of touted prospects promoted to the majors by the Reds. He joins Elly De La Cruz, Matt McLain, and Christian Encarnacion-Strand in that respect. It's to be seen how the Reds' manager, David Bell, goes about divvying up playing time.
Teams have been more aggressive in promoting their prospects in recent days since the service-time threshold for those players retaining rookie eligibility next season has passed. As part of the latest Collective Bargaining Agreement, teams can now gain additional draft picks if players fit certain criteria, including appearing on two preseason top 100 prospect rankings and entering their rookie season with fewer than 60 days of service time.
