Thus far in the season, he’s been a revelation
Let’s clear something up first.
It’s pronounced /JOON-yer/, not /YOON-yer/ Marte. It shouldn’t be that hard to look at Baseball Reference to figure this out, but apparently it is. For your future references in aggrieved complaining about whatever bullpen malady has laid waste, I give you the proper way to say this young man’s name.
All good? Ok, on with the show.
There is always someone in a bullpen for any major league team that is a revelation, an arm they were not counting on to be one of their top options who inevitably forces the manager to use him in high leverage situations. When he’s not hunting left wrists on his teammates, Marte has been that revelation for the team this year. Much like Jeff Hoffman in 2023, the team added Marte in the hopes that maybe his velocity would play up when deployed in less than strenuous situations.
But a funny thing has happened with Marte as 2024 has had its curtains drawn open. He’s pitched much better than that and looks to have maybe leapfrogged some of the more notable names in the team’s bullpen on current pecking order.
Power rankings, at least for me, are useless. Putting people or teams or, hell, even songs in any kind of numerical order leads to discussion, sure, but it makes no sense to me whatsoever. A more accurate way to put things into an order that shows clear preference from one to another is by putting them in tiers. That way, you can say that X, Y, and Z are in a clear tier above A, B, and C. With that in mind, if you had to put the Phillies’ current bullpen arms into tiers, you might have a list something like this (minor leaguers included):
Tier 1
Jose Alvarado
Jeff Hoffman
Matt Strahm
Tier 2
Gregory Soto
Orion Kerkering
Tier 3
Seranthony Dominguez
Yunior Marte
Ricardo Pinto
Nick Nelson
Dylan Covey
We’ve seen this tiering play out when high leverage situations play out. We know what when the game is on the line, Rob Thomson is going to call upon the Tier 1 relievers in some order. What’s striking to me, though, is not the guys in the first or second tier, but the guys in the third tier. You could argue that Dominguez should be included in Tier 2 and I would likely buy into that argument. But based on what we’ve seen this year, could you also make the same argument for Marte? I think so.
Comparing the two pitchers, you’ll see that they’ve been pretty similar this season so far with the dual caveat that a) it’s a small sample size, and b) Dominguez has been in more difficult situations.
On those numbers, Marte has had the better year. It’s really not much of a question either. He’s done it by altering how he goes about his business on the mound.
One of the changes he’s made has been with his fastball. He’s continued his trend since coming to the Phillies of throwing his four seam fastball less and throwing his equally as hard sinker more.
There’s also the tale to be told of not just what he’s throwing in terms of his two fastballs, but where he’s throwing them as well. Better command over them both has been key for Marte, but he’s also throwing them in better spots. Last year, he lived at the bottom of the zone, but left most of his pitches on the glove side.
This year, he looks like he’s made more of a concerted effort to live arm side with his arsenal, which would make some sense considering he’s showed improvement in command this year.
Last year could have seen him miss so much to bad spots mostly because he had scarcely an idea of how to even put it into better spots in the zone.
It’s led to better peripheral numbers as well. Already in this young season, Marte has seen improvement in a lot of the rate stats we look at for evaluating pitchers, starters or relievers. Hitters are swinging and missing more often, getting weaker contact and genuinely hitting worse against him than they did in 2023.
Having Marte be able to make these kinds of changes is yet another testament to the work Caleb Cotham and the rest of the pitching development crew has put in. If he can keep these kinds of gains throughout the season, it could have beneficial effects not just this year, but also help with offseason planning. Jeff Hoffman is going to be a free agent and looks like he’s going to get paid well as a reward for the work he has done. Seranthony Dominguez has a team option of $8 million for 2025. There is also the possibility that there will be a need in center field depending on how the rest of the season shakes out, which means some decent financial decisions will need to be made. Having a reliever that can be as effective as Marte has been this early in the season and having him count so little against the ledger would go a long way in creating a roster capable of competing for championships.
It is early still and that caveat cannot be ignored. One bad outing by Marte would make all of these numbers look much, much worse. Such is the life of a reliever. But if he can keep up this kind of pitching all year long, it’ll make an already rather deep bullpen that much deeper.