The Cincinnati Reds made several roster moves today. Nick Martini being called up from Triple-A Louisville, along with Michael Siani (which we knew was happening already) were the promotions. Stuart Fairchild was placed on the 7-day concussion injured list. The team also designated outfielder Henry Ramos for assignment, clearing a spot on the 40-man roster for Martini.
After spending the 2022 season playing in Korea where he hit .296/.365/.461, Nick Martini signed with the Reds just before spring training began in February. After 29 games it seemed like he was closer to being released than anything else as he struggled in a huge way – hitting just .155/.305/.196 with four doubles in 118 plate appearances.
But in the 30th game of the season with Louisville he went 4-6 with his first home run of the season and he hasn’t cooled off since. Over the span of 63 games that began that night, Martini has hit .323/.428/.593 for Louisville with 16 doubles, 3 triples, 15 home runs, 41 walks, and 63 strikeouts in 299 plate appearances. You can see all of his career stats here.
The left-handed hitter has absolutely crushed right-handed pitching since that May 23rd game, hitting .355/.454/.651 with 31 walks and 41 strikeouts in 205 plate appearances in Triple-A against righties. He’s been good against lefties, too – just not quite the same, hitting .253/.372/.468 against them in 94 plate appearances.
Martini is no spring chicken. He turned 33-years-old at the end of June. But he’s back in the big leagues for the first time since spending parts of 2021 with the Chicago Cubs. While in Louisville he played mostly left field, but got limited action in right and in center. He also played in 17 games at first base. There’s a little position flexibility there, but given the roster I doubt he’ll be used in a way that he gets to showcase that.
Henry Ramos has been up-and-down with the Reds a few times this year. He started out the season with Cincinnati by going 9-22 in April. He then went 6-40 (.150) during the first three weeks of May and was sent back to Triple-A. He remained there until two weeks ago when he was called back up. He played in five games, but only started in two of them. Against Pittsburgh he got a start and went 3-3 with a walk and a double. But he went 0-9 in the other four games he played in.
Interesting move. It’s like they are throwing things up against the wall hoping something sticks.
I know Senzel is history with the Reds but it continues to look more and more like Barrero is too.
He’s playing decently right now. My guess is they are hoping his value is going up. Hopefully, he gets traded to a new team. Frankly, I’d swap EDLC and Barrero for a couple of weeks. The ceilings aren’t comparable but EDLC seems to be struggling and would be well served with a Louisville tuneup.
Yeah … pretty much looks that way. Gonna be a long 6 weeks at this rate.
+500
I mean, sure, for guys like Ramos and Martini who are too old to be part of the Reds’ future, call them up and give them a very short audition window. Since they aren’t part of the future, it doesn’t make sense to give them time to hit out of slumps.
Either you produce, or it’s onto the next warm body to see if they can help the team immediately. Ramos had his chance and wasn’t helping much, so let’s see what Martini can do.
Nope, never too old to be part of the Reds future if you can hit well and play good defense one season at a time. Being young alone is not enough. Production is the key measurement, not age.
The more I read about this organization the more I believe they have no clue what they are doing. Why bring up a 33 year old guy when Barrero might actually help you win a game.
Well he’s not going to be a late inning pinch runner with ZERO stolen bases. lol
If the Reds had called up Barrero, he’d simply be keeping Hopkins company on the bench.
At least he can run and play pretty good defense. Not puttying down Martini. Maybe he’ll be good and be an asset as a pinch hitter although I don’t know who he would be pinch hitting for.
My guess is that Barrero has not shown that he can produce offensively without regular playing time, and that Martinez is better suited for a bench role than Barrero. They also probably need a LH pinch-hitter more than they do a RH pinch-hitter.
If a regular spot in the infield came open, such as injury to one of the infielders (including Steer), then Barrero would get the call.
Surely this a short term thing to get thru this road trip. Martini can’t be a part of the team’s long term plans.
I’m curious that siani and martini are both left handed bats. With friedl and benson and Fraley all lefty, doesn’t this hurt Bells handiness lineups? And what about pinch hitting when they plug in a lefty reliever?
They must really NOT like Barrero anymore. Reynolds is having a pretty good year but he’s not on the 40 man roster if I’m not mistaken.
Then again neither was Martini. lol
I don’t think it boils down to liking or not liking. They presumably wanted two outfielders to replace two injured outfielders. I suppose they could have called up Barrero to fill one of those spots, but these guys are probably going to be sitting a lot, and it doesn’t do Barrero much good to sit on the bench watching Friedl play center and Elly play short. I assume they see him as either an insurance policy at shortstop or a good trading chip, and in either case it’s probably in everyone’s interest to let him keep hitting well in the minors rather than bringing him up to sit on the bench and occasionally pinch run or pinch hit.
At this point in the season it just might be time to forget about playing every day necessarily and just put your absolute best team on the field/roster for the remainder of the season in a pennant race.
Well, yeah, except do we know for sure that Barrero would be more valuable to this team right now? He can run, but he’s struggled to hit major league pitching and there’s no obvious place for him to play unless something weird happens. I’m not even sure who he’d ever be pinch hitting for other than when Bell wants to do his handedness thing with Benson. He’s not ever pinch hitting for Votto or Friedl, I don’t think. He’d just sit there doing nothing but pinch run now and then, and that’s pretty useless.
I hope Martini and his bat are worth it because he doesn’t seem to add much more than that. We shouldn’t be playing our bench much from here on out. Defense and pinch running are all we basically need them for at this point.
And Dream Weaver is now a Seattle Mariner.
2 through 5 we get Trout, Ohtani, Drury, 4M
Either Ashcraft is “really on” and induces weak stuff and missed bats, or those four light him up big time.
With the 9:38 EDT start time, I’ll be good for maybe 30 minutes worth of baseball tonight. And that’s the max number for me.
I have a decent shot to make it to the 5th inning. Will need the dog to be frisky from staying inside all day.
Ramos was DFA’d. Now , Martini (age 33 ) is called up as well as Siani, they are 3 regular OF at Louisville Bats… I think it is very interesting this transactions because I could guess Siani is taking the role of Fairchild so it’s likely he’ll be optioned when Fairchild returns from IL and Martini replaces Ramos role, however, Martini still has 1 option according to BBRef so he’d be optioned too in case of a bad preformance. That said, maybe will be a short battle between Siani and Martini to determine who will stay in the big leagues, at least, until Fraley gets back although Hopkins is in the mix too…
Too bad for Ramos. He batted .315 in Louisville and just needs more time in the majors to prove it. Having 12 more ABs this time is not quite the sample size to judge.
Yeah that was quick.Ramos had 2 key at bats Saturday,the first one he pinch hit for Benson with 2 on and later remained in the game to face their closer again with 2 on and the game on the line.Bell obviously thought he was the best option in both cases and now he has been DFA.Not trying to start something but that makes no sense.What do we gain by Martini for Ramos?Martini is 33 years old.If we weren’t sure about Senzel and Barrero then we know now.WOW
Agree with SteveAreno and Roger Garrett commentary about Ramos DFA. Next contestant, Martini, a
33 year-old left hand hitting outfielder. The revolving door saga of incompetency continues. A move well-suited for a team no longer interested in competing for a playoff opportunity.
Setback for Lodolo just reported on Twitter. Ugh.
Thinking the Reds need to acquire two veteran starters this winter since Greene and Lodolo cannot stay healthy. If they do this and everyone ends up healthy and effective at the same time, keep one at AAA for depth or stick him in the ‘pen.
Is this kralls way to force bell to play Hopkins? You know have mostly left handed outfielders other than steer and Hopkins. Siani, Benson, Friedl. And martini.