Marte is back in affiliate football after spending the 2025 season in Japan. The Dominican Republic-born pitcher signed with NPB’s Chunichi Dragons last winter. He split his time between the top level and their minor league club. Marte posted a 1.95 earned run average with a pair of saves and 11 holds over 32 1/3 innings for the NPB team. That came with a modest 19.1% strikeout rate and relied heavily on a .213 average on balls in play against him.
The 30-year-old (31 in February) pitched in the big league every year from 2022 through 24. Marte played 39 games for the Giants as a rookie and spent the next two seasons as an up-and-down middle reliever for the Phillies. He has a big arm and sits in the 96-98 MPH range with his sinker. Marte missed a fair amount of bats in the minors, but has a strikeout rate of 20.1% below average over 102 games in the big leagues. He owns a 5.64 ERA in 113 1/3 career frames.
Cincinnati has a solid late-inning group, led by re-signed closer Emilio Pagan, Tony Santillan, Graham Ashcraft, Connor Phillips And Caleb Ferguson. They have a few openings in the middle innings and don’t have much minor league depth. Tejay Antone is their only other currently healthy non-roster invitee who has MLB experience, though they’ll presumably try Keegan Thompson through waivers after he was appointed for an assignment last week.
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