Reds make more spring cuts, option Noelvi Marte to AAA Louisville
Camp in Goodyear gets more streamlined!
Not even the shoulder issues plaguing Spencer Steer could pave the way to an Opening Day roster spot on the Cincinnati Reds for Noelvi Marte.
Marte, whose 2024 season was derailed by an 80-game PED suspension and brutal slump upon returning, was among six players cut from spring camp in Goodyear, Arizona on Monday morning. Said list included plenty of promising names, too, as each of Connor Phillips, Yosver Zulueta, Rece Hinds, and Tyler Callihan were optioned to AAA Louisville while Sal Stewart - the lone name here not on the 40-man roster already - was reassigned to minor league camp.
MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon relayed the news.
Reds have made some cuts… Optioned to AAA-Louisville: INF/OF Tyler Callihan, OF Rece Hinds, INF Noelvi Marte, RHP Connor Phillips, and RHP Yosver Zulueta; Reassigned to minor league camp: INF Sal Stewart.
— Mark Sheldon (@msheldon.bsky.social) 2025-03-10T14:58:02.009Z
None of this news should be particularly surprising, in all honesty. Marte’s 2024 struggles at the big league level meant he’d need an otherworldly showing in spring camp to have even the slightest chance to move ahead of the litany of other 3B options in camp, and his 3 for 20 start to camp (with 8 K and a lone walk) obviously didn’t do much to sway perception. Instead, he’ll head to minor league camp now (and AAA Louisville to begin the season) in hopes he can somehow regain the form that made him such as highly sought-after prospect to begin with.
Rece Hinds finds himself in a similar situation, albeit with that electric MLB debut week forever in his folder. He struggled terribly after his return to AAA, and will look to regain form for the Bats to begin the year as OF depth. Phillips, too, has a mountain to climb after stumbling during a mostly lost 2024.
In Stewart, the Reds are seemingly reassigning a player who impressed significantly while in camp. He was never going to make the Opening Day roster, but he stuck around camp almost a week longer than many of his AA-destined peers, received some seriously public praise from future Hall of Famer Manny Machado, and impressed on the field (5 for 19, 2 2B, HR, 4/3 BB/K). The consensus Top 100 overall prospect showed that the freak hand injury that cut short his 2024 season with High-A Dayton is clearly behind him, too.
Opening Day is just 17 days away. There are 46 players still in Reds camp.