The Cincinnati Reds have signed shortstop Richie Martin and left-handed reliever Alex Young to minor league deals and given them an invitation to big league spring training. Coupled with the Reds prospects that also got invites to spring training today, that puts Cincinnati at 59 players that will be in big league camp.
Richie Martin is a 28-year-old infielder who has limited big league experience. In 2019 he made his big league debut and played in 120 games for the Baltimore Orioles. That season he hit .208/.260/.322 with six home runs and 10 steals. Martin didn’t get back to the Major Leagues until 2021 when he played in 37 games with the Orioles where he posted an OPS of .555. Last year he played in 13 games with Baltimore and posted a .542 OPS. Across his 170 big league games over the last four years he has hit .212/.261/.311.
Last year in Triple-A Richie Martin played in 80 games for Norfolk. He hit .250/.341/.380 with two home runs, 32 walks, 66 strikeouts, and 29 stolen bases. That line is pretty much how his minor league career has gone. In parts of six seasons he’s hit .253/.340/.367 with 19 home runs and 97 stolen bases. There’s not much power in his game at all, but he does have a little bit of speed. Baseball Savant has his sprint speed in the 86th percentile among big leaguers for 2022, but it was in the 97th percentile in both 2021 and 2019 when he played more often and had more data to rely on.
Martin would seem to be depth rather than someone being brought in to land an every day job in the big leagues. That, of course, is why he’s getting a minor league deal. But it’s tough to imagine a scenario where the organization looks at his profile as anything but the final guy on the bench who can be a glove and a pinch runner. He doesn’t walk, he strikes out a bunch (at least in his big league career), and has absolutely no power. Sometimes it’s nice to have these kinds of guys in Triple-A in case you have multiple injuries that open up a need for a glove-first guy who can run.
You can see Richie Martin’s career stats here.
Alex Young is a bit more interesting of a signing. Last season he pitched for the Cleveland Guardians in one game and then in 24 games with the San Francisco Giants. Between those two clubs he posted a 2.36 ERA in 26.2 innings and didn’t allow a home run. If you’re wondering why a guy with a 2.36 ERA in 25 big league games last season is signing a minor league contract you can join the club because it’s tough to make sense of.
The 29-year-old from Westlake, Ohio has spent parts of the last four years in the big leagues. He made 15 starts and two relief appearances with Arizona back in 2019 and posted a 3.56 ERA that season, but the next two years saw him struggle as he pitched in 55 games (and made nine starts) with a 6.04 ERA before he rebounded in 2022.
In 2022 he saw his ground ball rate make a big jump up from where it’s been in the past, going from a league average rate to a nearly elite rate (54.2%). That helped turn his home run rate in his career from very bad to him not allowing a single home run in his 26.2 innings pitched.
His pitch usage and repertoire changed in 2022. He threw his sinker a little more than he has in the past, but not by much. What he did, though, was drop the usage of his 4-seamer significantly, lower the usage of his curveball, add a slider that he threw more than his fastball, and increase the rate of his change up by 50% from the past. All together the changes led to a very strong performance from the lefty.
What is interesting is that despite being a lefty, left-handed hitters kind of crushed him in 2022. The sample size is small – just 54 plate appearances – but they hit .340/.426/.447 against him. No home runs, so maybe “crushed him” isn’t the right verbage here, but they hit the ball quite well against him. Right-handed hitters, though, only managed to hit .232/.290/.321 against him.
