Photo: Doug Gray
The Cincinnati Reds have made one roster cut in each of the last two days. Prior to the games on Friday the team sent reliever Yunior Marte back to the minor league side of camp. Today they made another move to send out a reliever, this time reassigning right-handed reliever Lyon Richardson to minor league camp. That leaves 40 players in big league camp, though we should note that includes injured pitchers Hunter Greene and Caleb Ferguson, both of whom will miss the start of the regular season.
Richardson pitched last night against the San Francisco Giants in the road game of the Reds split squad day of games. He tossed 1.2 shutout innings with a strikeout. That was his 6th appearance of the spring and his third straight appearance that he was asked to pitch more than an inning.
The righty struggled early on, allowing four runs in 3.0 innings in three games during February where he walked two and struck out two while giving up seven hits. Things got a bit better in March. Richardson pitched in three games and threw 4.2 innings while allowing just one earned run on five hits and two walks. He also struck out five batters during the month. Overall this spring he threw 7.2 innings and gave up 12 hits and had an ERA of 5.87 with four walks and seven strikeouts.
Yunior Marte had also pitched in six games with Cincinnati this spring. All of his outings lasted one inning, and in five of the six he was solid but on March 2nd he gave up three runs on two hits and two walks to the Chicago Cubs. Overall the 31-year-old allowed five runs on nine hits with two walks in 6.0 innings (7.50 ERA). He also struck out 11 of the 29 batters he faced.
Both Lyon Richardson and Yunior Marte were non-roster invitees. They both also pitched in the big leagues in parts of three seasons, with Marte seeing time with the Giants and Phillies between 2022 and 2024 before heading to Japan in 2025. Richardson was with the Reds in parts of the previous three seasons.