In a tank of water, they submerge a metal milk can like the kind made famous by Harry Houdini. It’s wrapped in such thick chains it would make a rapper blush. A carnival barker tells the crowd, “Inside this secure milk can is Grey Albright. This was the only way we could stop him from writing a Noelvi Marte sleeper–” My head pops out of the tank water, not even out of breath. Sorry, I have to write this Noelvi Marte sleeper post. This guy is too ready to breakout for me to be hindered by some cheap trick. Apologies to those that saw them live at the Budokan. If Harry Houdini had a sleeper as good as Noelvi Marte, maybe he would’ve made it out alive. At least I think he died, but there’s some Harry Houdini lore like he’s living in Cuba with Tupac. Crazy that everyone famous who dies early goes to Cuba to live out their days. The whole island of Cuba is just celebrities who died prematurely. This feels like the plot of a movie. Don’t steal my ideas! [does the Moonwalk back to my original thought] You can, however, steal Noelvi Marte from your leaguemates if you start paying attention. Let’s do the segue and get to the meat of this sucker! So, what can we expect from Noelvi Marte for 2026 fantasy baseball and what makes him a sleeper?
PSYCHE! I’m currently rolling out my 2026 fantasy baseball rankings on the Patreon. Don’t wait for the rankings to come out next month. Anyway II, the Noelvi Marte sleeper:
Last year in 339 ABs, Noelvi Marte went 14/10/.263 with a 23.6% strikeout rate and 4.4% walk rate. So the latter of the numbers — the lattest? — is hilarious. 4.4% is not good, so sorry if you’re in an OBP league. Everything else is incredibly promising. That was in 90 games. Not quite 50% of a season, but–[Mr. Prorater crashes through my wall] C’mon, man! I just plastered over where you crashed through to prorate Nolan McLean’s strikeouts. Use the door! “Sorry, I was just gonna prorate Noelvi’s season.” No kidding! Well, go! “He would’ve went around 28/20.” You’re Mr. Prorater and you’re saying “around” for what a guy could’ve done? “Yeah, I’ve embarrassed myself.” So, with this rough math, Noelvi Marte would’ve been around the same statline that we just got from Andy Pages (27/14/.272). Pages also had a 4.6 BB% so the comp isn’t terrible. Marte might hit higher in the order than Pages did, but close to tomato-tomahto as we’re getting. Pages returned $17.6 worth of value. If you take $17.6 and give it 3rd base eligibility, Noelvi Marte becomes the 7th best 3rd baseman, right behind Jazz Chisholm Jr. or around a top 60 player. That’s without a step forward at all. Also, Pages is regularly a nine-hole hitter, Marte is slotted into the two-hole (hey now!) and is actually younger than Pages; Marte’s 24. Let’s look at some clips:
Noelvi Marte ties the ballgame with a homer to DEEP center field ? pic.twitter.com/TcT3VhRjFp
— MLB (@MLB) August 29, 2025
He has possibly the same level speed as power and he has a lot of power.
— Follow @BarnHasSpoken2 (@Baseball8754021) September 6, 2023
I’m sorry, I got goose-willies watching that home run. If you can, put on your sound and listen to that home run. Put your ear up to your computer. Hold on, first tell your officemate, Susan, to stop looking at you. Now, put your ear up to your computer and listen. That’s the best sound in the world. So, that’s 30-plus-homer power. I won’t project him for 30+, but it’s there.
With The Naylor-27, Noelvi Marte can steal 35 bags. Will he? No idea. I think since Francona just watched him play, and let him steal 10 bags in a little over a half season, he’ll let him keep running since they had success (made the playoffs). Maybe Tito lets or encourages him to steal more. I wouldn’t project him for 30+ bags–Actually, I won’t project him for 20+, but that speed is there.
So, power is real, speed is real enough for steals, and what else do we have? Average. This is the trickiest part of his game. He cut his strikeouts, but September was a bit of a disaster (32.7 K%, .287 SLG, .191). It’s one month. If it was June, I’d ignore it. It’s harder to ignore when it’s the last look you get of a player. Since that slump was so bad, he didn’t even start one of their playoff games, coming in later in the game. The September slump plays tricks on the brain, but, speaking of tricks, I didn’t get out of a milk can to get here and write this post to let one terrible month bring me down. What I always say with a bad September, what if that means he’s great April through August? I’ll take that. He did start excellent too: 1st half was 7.7 BB%, 16.3 K% (!!!), .284 with a .547 SLG. August was his best month too, so just saying he was good in the 1st half is leaving off the good stuff. August: five homers, .297 with a 24.5 K%. September was really the death blow. One bad month is gonna stop you from drafting a potential 30/20/.260 3rd baseman? After I climbed out of a giant water tank to bring you this? C’mon! For 2026 fantasy baseball, I’ll give Noelvi Marte projections of 71/25/68/.251/17 in 512 ABs with a chance for much more.
