Reds Option TJ Friedl, Recall Noelvi Marté

The Reds announced that outfielder TJ Friedl was optioned to Triple-A Louisville after last night’s game. Fellow outfielder Noelvi Marté has been recalled to take Friedl’s place on the active roster.

It’s the first optional assignment in almost four years for Friedl. The Reds recalled him from the minors in August of 2022. He has been in the majors or on the injured list since then. He established himself as an above-average big leaguer in 2023. He got into 138 games for the Reds, hit 18 home runs and stole 27 bases. He slashed .279/.352/.467 for a 117 wRC+. When combined with his strong defense, mostly in center field, FanGraphs credited him with 4.1 wins above replacement on the year.

2024 was a bit of a step back. Friedl made multiple trips to the injured list and only appeared in 85 games. When on the field, he produced a subpar .226/.310/.380 line and 90 wRC+, though that was held back by an unfortunate .229 batting average on balls in play. He bounced back in 2025 with a .261/.364/.378 line and 109 wRC+ in 152 games. His defensive metrics weren’t quite as strong but he was still worth 2.9 fWAR that year.

2026 has been a disaster so far. He has a .179/.259/.256 line and 44 wRC+. That may be partially due to a low BABIP of .230 but Friedl has regressed in other areas. His 23.6% strikeout rate is close to league average but is easily the worst of his career, as he has usually been in the 15 to 17% range. His 7.3% walk rate is also a personal worst and more than four ticks below last year’s 7.3% clip. He only has two home runs with more than a third of the season in the books.

The Reds have decided they’ve seen enough and have sent him to the minors, ideally for a reset that gets him back on track. If he can find his groove again or someone else on the roster gets injured, he could be recalled to the majors in the future.

Friedl crossed three years of service time last year and qualified for arbitration. The Reds are paying him $3.8MM this year. He has already crossed the four-year mark in terms of service here in 2026 and could be retained via arbitration for 2027 and 2028, though he would be a non-tender candidate after this season if he continues struggling.

Marté’s arc has been somewhat similar to that of Friedl. He had an encouraging debut in 2023, slashing .316/.366/.456 in 35 games. He couldn’t carry that over into 2024, as he hit .210/.248/.301. He had a decent 2025 showing, with a .263/.300/.448 line. He started 2026 with a brutal .138/.194/.138 line in 11 games and got sent down to the farm.

Since then, he has been killing the ball in Triple-A. He has eight home runs and a .369/.409/.575 line for the Bats. His .395 BABIP isn’t sustainable but he is only striking out at a 14.8% clip, less than half of the 32.3% pace he had in the majors earlier this year. Cincinnati will hope that he can bring some of that up to the show with him.

It’s worth checking in on Marté’s service time. He came into 2026 with his service clock at one year and 139 days. Based on the previous cutoffs, he had a really good chance to qualify for arbitration as a Super Two guy after 2026 if he got to 2.139. But since he spent close to two months on optional assignment, that’s no longer the case.

But he has a chance to keep his previous pace for free agency. When he was optioned, his service clock was at 1.158, which is 14 days shy of the two-year mark. If he Reds keep him up for at least two weeks, he will hit that line, meaning free agency after 2030 will still be possible for him.

Frield has been sharing center field with Blake Dunn and Dane Myers. Marté was mostly a right fielder last year but he has been seeing a decent amount of center field time in the minors, so perhaps he will be a factor up the middle. JJ Bleday should have the left field job locked down since he is hitting .291/.387/.632. Spencer Steer is hitting .277/.351/.461 but has been splitting his time between the outfield corners, first base and second base. Will Benson is also in the mix but he is hitting .188/.324/.353 on the year.