Noelvi Marte has certainly produced since the Cincinnati Reds sent him back to Triple-A Louisville, but one number stands out when looking at his performance.
Marte is slashing .339/.351/.482 with a 116 wRC+ since returning to Louisville. He has also struck out just 21.1% of the time.
On the surface, those are pretty good numbers.
But then you get to the walk rate.
Marte has walked in just 1.8% of his plate appearances since being sent back to Triple-A. Without watching every one of his at-bats in Louisville, that's the number that concerns me the most.
The Reds didn't send Marte down because anyone questioned whether he could hit a baseball hard. We've seen the talent. We've seen what happens when he gets a pitch he can handle.
The problem is getting him to be more selective at the plate.
You can get away with chasing and hitting bad pitches in the minor leagues. The quality of pitching isn't as good, mistakes are more common, and talented hitters like Marte can still find ways to produce.
It's much more difficult to do that in the big leagues.
Jun 26, 2026; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Cincinnati Reds first baseman Sal Stewart (27) greets pinch hitter Noelvi Marte (4) crossing home plate on a two run pinch hit home run against the Pittsburgh Pirates during the eighth inning at PNC Park. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
Big-league pitchers will figure out what you're willing to chase and continue attacking those areas until you prove you're willing to lay off. For Marte, that pitch is the breaking ball away. He has to force pitchers back into the strike zone instead of helping them by expanding it himself. He has to be willing to draw walks. Pitchers have thrown him strikes just 44% of the time in the bigs, which is alarmingly low, meaning Marte is chasing way too much.
That's why the .339 batting average is encouraging, but the 1.8% walk rate makes it difficult to get too excited about what he's doing in Louisville.
The talent has never really been the question with Marte. The numbers in Louisville look good. The numbers that might matter most, though, still don't.
Sep 8, 2026; Los Angeles, California, USA; Cincinnati Reds shortstop Elly de la Cruz (44) heads off the field in the fifth inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
Here's a stat that puts into perspective just how good Elly De La Cruz has been.
As Matt Wilkes pointed out , Barry Larkin retired following the 2004 season, and from 2005 through 2022, Reds shortstops combined for just 33.2 fWAR, the sixth-lowest total in baseball during that span. Zack Cozart had the most of any Reds shortstop with 11.7 fWAR.
De La Cruz has already accumulated 17.3 fWAR as a shortstop in just his first four seasons.
That means Elly has already easily surpassed Cozart and produced more than half the fWAR that every Reds shortstop combined for during the 18 seasons between Larkin's retirement and De La Cruz's arrival.
This article was originally published on www.si.com/mlb/reds/onsi as One Concerning Stat Stands Out Since Reds Sent Noelvi Marte Back to Triple-A .
