The Giants have selected right-hander Yunior Marte from Double-A Richmond, the team announced. Marte will make his major league debut on Saturday and start the second game of a doubleheader against the Diamondbacks. To make room for Marte, the Giants optioned lefty Seth Lonsway to Triple-A Sacramento and transferred infielder/outfielder Casey Schmitt to the 60-day injured list.
Marte, not to be confused with the Yunior Marté who pitched for the Giants in 2022, joined the organization in a trade last summer. Shortly before the July 31 deadline, the Giants sent outfielder Mike Yastrzemski to the Royals for Marte. The 23-year-old now ranks as one of the Giants’ 30 best prospects at FanGraphs (No. 20), MLB Pipeline (No. 24) and Baseball America (No. 27). Despite Marte’s “ugly delivery,” Brendan Gawlowski of FanGraphs gives the 6-foot-6, 235-pounder a chance to carve out a career as a major league starter. He brings a high-90s fastball to the table and mixes it with a promising splitter/slider combination.
Marte began this season with High-A Eugene, where he pitched to a 3.74 ERA with a 22.8% strikeout rate and a 10.6% walk rate in 43 1/3 innings. The results have been similar since the Giants bumped him up a level in the first week of June. Across 64 1/3 frames with Richmond, he owns a 3.92 ERA with improved strikeout and walk rates of 26.4% and 8.1%, respectively. Marte may end up going right back to Richmond after the game, but the Giants will get at least one look at him and add him to their 40-man roster ahead of the offseason. He otherwise would have been eligible for the Rule 5 draft during the winter.
Schmitt went on the 10-day IL with a torn left meniscus on July 28. Manager Tony Vitello announced then that Schmitt would undergo surgery and likely miss the rest of the season. Schmitt’s move to the 60-day IL all but confirms he is done for the year.
