The Reds need to pick a lane in right field

Terry Francona never defined who the Cincinnati Reds’ starting right fielder was going to be. He always said that it would work itself out. What was a platoon between Will Benson and Noelvi Marte during the first few games of the season turned into Marte getting more of the playing time vs. RHP over the last week.

What’s been happening at that position this season has been going very poorly. Marte is hitting .138 with a .332 OPS, and Benson is hitting .179 with a .567 OPS. It’s still a small sample size, but there are extremes in their underlying metrics that aren’t encouraging.

Terry Francona and Nick Krall have track records of being very patient with their decision making, and for good reason. The Reds haven’t been an organization that benches guys after a bad week, or sends someone down based on a small sample. You’ll get a lot of decisions wrong if you make rash decisions.

In 2025, as bad as Jeimer Candelario’s start to the season was, he wasn’t benched until the end of April. In June, Christian Encarnacion-Strand played through some mistakes for three weeks until the Reds decided that he wasn’t going to be an every day player anymore. Positive examples from last year were the success that Spencer Steer and Noelvi Marte had during the summer of 2025.

Typically, you can take the over if you’re projecting when the Reds are going to make a big shakeup. Marte only has 29 at-bats this year, and Benson has 28.

But still, that doesn’t take away from the fact that what the Reds are getting in right field, especially from Marte, is alarming.

Last August, Marte was the Reds’ best player. He has the upside to be an All-Star down the road. But in 2026 — and also in September of 2025 — he hasn’t been good.

“He’s having a tough time,” Francona said. “It looks like he’s trying to hit everything. We see him go up there and swing at a 2-0 breaking ball. Sometimes, it’s hard to let the game come to you. He’s trying to hit everything right now.”

The number jumps off the page: Marte is seeing the lowest percentage strikes in all of baseball.

(All stats are entering Sunday’s game).

A staggering 61.3% of the pitches that Marte has seen have been outside of the strike zone. While the numbers haven’t been updated to reflect the results of Sunday’s game yet, the Angels almost gave him nothing to hit in the series finale.

He saw one pitch over the heart of the plate. Four pitches were strikes on the edges. The other 14 pitches that he saw were balls. On Sunday, Marte went 0-for-4.

In 2024, Marte walked nine times in 66 games. In 2025, he walked 16 times in 90 games. He just doesn’t take walks, and pitchers are taking advantage of that by not throwing him strikes.

The following spray chart tells an interesting story. It just accounts for pitches that were strikes and shows what Marte did with them (entering Sunday). Here’s what he’s doing when he’s getting his pitch to hit.

It’s a sign that Marte needs to significantly improve his approach at the plate.

This year, Marte is chasing at the eighth-highest rate among hitters with at least 25 plate appearances. He has the highest ground ball rate in all of baseball — he’s chasing pitches and hitting groundouts. Marte also has never been good in general versus LHP. He also got picked off twice over the last two games. He has a lot to work on.

Marte didn’t play much during the opening week of the season vs. RHP. Then, with Benson not hitting well, Francona has given Marte more of an opportunity recently. Marte hasn’t been taking advantage of it.

Benson got the first crack at the bulk of the playing time vs. RHP but didn’t play as much over the last week. Like Marte, Benson is struggling at the plate.

Fifty percent of the time, Benson is “under” the ball and hitting a weak pop up or fly out (the third-highest rate in baseball), and his average launch angle is the fifth-highest in baseball. He posted a great xWOBA last year, which showed that he was making quality contact. He’s not making quality contact. Also, Benson is whiffing at pitches in the strike zone at the fourth-worst rate in MLB. Two things that are working in Benson’s favor are his defense and his solid walk rate.

Marte and Benson each need regular playing time to work through some key adjustments. They’re not getting that right now for a Reds team that’s playing outfield roulette. Marte and Benson have each only been in the lineup on consecutive days twice all season (Benson hasn’t made consecutive starts since April 1, and Marte made consecutive starts this weekend).

The Reds have two outfielders in Triple-A, Rece Hinds and JJ Bleday, who are raking.

On the whole, Marte has made eight starts in right field this season, and Benson has made six. The upside is there with Marte and Benson, but they don’t look like their best selves right now. The two of them splitting time probably isn’t going to work.