The seemingly neverending shuffle of the Cincinnati Reds outfield got another significant round on Wednesday afternoon. This time, it featured the demotion of a player nobody, if polled in the offseason, would have expected would be off the active roster just 60 games into the 2026 season.
The Reds made a straight swap, optioning former leadoff man and everyday CF TJ Friedl to AAA Louisville and recalling Opening Day RF Noelvi Marte in his stead.
This is the TJ Friedl who posted a robust .364 OBP in 685 PA atop the Reds lineup at the big league level just last year. This is the TJ Friedl who posted a nearly ~4 WAR season in 2023 when he hit .279/.352/.467 with 18 homers and 27 steals. This is the TJ Friedl who, aside from 7 games rehabbing, has been out of AAA and at the big league level full-time since the middle of the 2022 season.
Rather, this is merely some version of what’s left of that TJ Friedl.
So far in 2026, Friedl’s the owner of a meager 44 wRC+ in 178 PA. There have been 235 MLB players who have logged at least 140 PA so far this season, and only Lawrence Butler of the A’s (43) owns a lower mark than Friedl’s. It’s been a decline so rapid that the Reds seemingly struggled to truly grasp it, with TJ still regularly starting and playing entire games as recently as two weeks ago despite those struggles.
Ultimately, it became too much to continue to try to hide, especially with Marte knocking the cover off the ball again at AAA and getting regular run as the CF of the Bats in the process. That paired with the solid performances by Blake Dunn and the almost profile-perfect pinch hitting by Will Benson meant it was Friedl’s spot on the roster – not one of the other OFs who’ve been on the shuttle bus between Cincinnati and Louisville – that was on the line.
The only question now is just how much of a ‘regular’ the Reds choose to make Marte. The infield injuries and shuffling have rendered Spencer Steer more of a regular in a corner OF spot, while NL Player of the Month JJ Bleday has a stranglehold on the other corner. That means CF is the one spot where there’s more of a track to playing time, though each of Dunn, Dane Myers, and Benson have a claim to some time there, too. I don’t get the impression that the Reds would actively recall Marte just to have him sit bench more often than not, though, so it will be interesting to see if he’s given a shot to claim the regular CF spot with a consistent spate of playing time in the coming weeks.
