Shockwaves in 2026 Fantasy Baseball Rankings: Corbin Carroll Rockets Into Top 10 While Bednar and Megill Plummet!

– Noelvi Marte, on the other hand… that’s on the short list of the wackiest early season situations I can remember. Although he’s a right-handed hitter, Marte struggled mightily against lefties last season, to the point at which the Reds said before the spring they couldn’t continue batting him second in between the left-handed TJ Friedl and switch-hitter Elly De La Cruz, who is much better against right-handers. It suggested that they really thought he’d continue to be worse against left-handers than righties. And now what have they done since? They’re platooning him against left-handers! Marte has played all three times they’ve faced left-handers and twice in six games against righties. He hasn’t started back-to-back games at any point. Marte was the team’s second-best hitter (behind De La Cruz) against righties last year, coming in at .275/.305/.516, and now he has five at-bats against them this year. On Sunday, he started against right-hander Jack Leiter, went 1-for-2 and then was lifted for a pinch-hitter against another righty. It’s truly bizarre. The Reds have two decent choices at this point: they can commit to Marte as a regular or they can send him down and bring up Rece Hinds to fill the role that Marte is terribly ill-equipped for. I’d rather they choose the former, and I think Marte will be quite useful in mixed leagues if it happens. But just carrying on like this doesn’t make any sense.