Diamondbacks’ Ketel Marte on track to come off injured list next week, Torey Lovullo says
PHOENIX — If there was any lingering concern as to whether Ketel Marte still wanted to be the Arizona Diamondbacks’ franchise second baseman moving forward, both he and his manager squashed that Monday.
Hours before Torey Lovullo revealed that Marte was on track to be activated off the 10-day injured list early next week, Marte shared a social media video that documented his rehab at Salt River Fields, Arizona’s nearby spring training complex.
“There’s definitely a strategy to getting him back on the field, get him healthy,” Lovullo said.
Marte has been cleared to take batting practice and will continue to ramp up ahead of his return. The soonest he could be back is Aug. 31, at home against the Philadelphia Phillies.
“If it’s possible to get him ready for Philly, we’ll definitely take the at-bats,” Lovullo said.
Marte’s Instagram video on Monday both served as a public acknowledgement of his status as he works to return from a left knee injury and signaled something more. Marte has not been seen in Arizona’s clubhouse since he no-showed at Fenway Park, an absence that triggered a move to MLB’s restricted list, and he has not addressed the confusion or uproar that followed.
But on Monday, he shared the footage of a workout in team-issued gear — a notable update and a sign that he was pushing toward a return for the remainder of Arizona’s season. That commitment wasn’t something Lovullo seemed sure of a week ago in Boston.
“I hope so,” Lovullo said then. “We need him. He’s a good player. One of the best players in the National League, as far as I’m concerned.”
Torey Lovullo has spent several days addressing Ketel Marte’s status. (Chris Coduto / Getty Images)
When he does return, Marte is expected to address his teammates and coaches, as well as the media, something that had become increasingly difficult the longer he remained away from the club.
“We’re trying to create the softest space for him to re-emerge back into this environment,” Lovullo said. “That’s up to him, however he wants to do it. I cannot force a human being to do something that I want to do, or anybody in this room wants to do, or a fan wants to do.
“One of the things that’s made Ketel such an extraordinary player is that he goes to the beat of his own drum, and I respect that.”
It’s also one of the elements that has put both Marte and the Diamondbacks in this peculiar situation, which began last week, when the 32-year-old did not show up to Fenway Park after traveling with his teammates to Boston.
Prior to that, Marte, who has appeared in 118 games this year, exited the Diamondbacks’ Aug. 14 contest against the Atlanta Braves with knee soreness. He sat out the next day’s game before returning Aug. 16. The following day, against the Red Sox, he was penciled into DH.
However, his no-show forced the Diamondbacks to place Marte on the restricted list and submit their lineup minutes before first pitch.
MLB’s restricted list is a roster designation reserved for players who are not with the club for a personal or non-baseball reason. They remain under contract with their organization, though they are not mandated to be compensated. Placing a player on the restricted list requires approval from MLB.
Ketel Marte didn’t show up at Fenway Park on Aug. 17, which prompted several days of confusion about his status. (David J. Griffin / Icon Sportswire via AP Images)
At the time, a visibly emotional Lovullo was not able to confirm whether Marte was still in Boston as he dealt with what was initially described as a “personal issue.”
By Thursday, however, the matter was no longer personal in scope. Rather, an MRI in Phoenix revealed that Marte had left knee inflammation. After three days on MLB’s restricted list, he was shifted to the 10-day IL.
That same day, Marte met with Lovullo, general manager Mike Hazen and his agent, and a path toward a return was settled.
“I’m not gonna get into specifics,” Hazen told reporters Thursday. “I feel like the conversation and meeting was productive. We discussed the last week. That, obviously, I’m not going to get into.”
“It was clearly a meeting that was well-documented, and we covered a lot of ground,” Lovullo said Friday. “We were able to say things that we needed to say to one another. And we are going to turn the page on this as quickly as possible.”
However, the saga took a swift turn Friday night, when the embattled second baseman was photographed gambling at a nearby casino at the same time that his teammates were playing at home, their playoff hopes slowly fading. Though Marte was not expected to be at Chase Field, the optics created yet another distraction for a club that can ill afford them.
“It’s not a choice I would make; I’m sure it’s not a choice a lot of people in this room would make,” Lovullo said before Saturday’s game. “But Ketel is a grown man, and he can make his own decisions.”
Those decisions will seemingly be addressed, at least internally, at some point before the Diamondbacks kick off a three-game homestand against the Phillies on Aug. 31. At 69-62, the Diamondbacks entered Monday’s series opener against the Chicago Cubs two games out of the NL’s third and final wild-card spot. FanGraphs estimated Arizona’s odds of securing a wild-card berth at 31.3 percent.
“For me, everyone goes through their own things,” rookie Ryan Waldschmidt said Friday. “Obviously, I’m not him, and I don’t know what’s going on with whatever is going on in his life. I am always open to hearing whatever somebody’s got to say. I speak for myself. I’m ready to have him back whenever.”
Not every teammate has taken that same stance, though.
“For us to go where we want to go, we gotta have him here,” reliever Kevin Ginkel said. “It’s disappointing how the things that happened, happened. There’s really no explanation for it.”