The Arizona Diamondbacks are about to get Ketel Marte back, but the bigger issue isn’t his knee anymore. It’s what waits for him inside the clubhouse.
Marte is expected to rejoin the team sometime during Arizona’s home series next week against the Philadelphia Phillies after dealing with a knee injury. Yet the absence itself has been overshadowed by the way it unfolded, and by the reaction from teammates who clearly haven’t loved what they’ve seen.
Manager Torey Lovullo said he felt “betrayed” after Marte, the club’s All-Star second baseman, no-showed at Fenway Park for the Diamondbacks’ first game against the Boston Red Sox. That alone created tension. Then came another moment that added fuel to it all: during the club’s first game against the Cincinnati Reds, Marte was seen at a casino that same night even though he did not need to be at the game because of the injury.
According to The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal, that did not go over well with everyone in the room. One player told Rosenthal, “Typical Ketel.
Just leaving. It is what it is.”
Others were even more pointed. Rosenthal reported that some teammates called it “a slap in the face” and said “that was rubbing people’s noses in it.”
That leaves Arizona with a tricky reality. The Diamondbacks need Marte’s production, but they also have to deal with the fact that some of the people around him seem to have real doubts about how this was handled.
When Marte does come back, the questions won’t stop at whether his knee is ready. They’ll be about how he’s received, how the room responds, and whether the team can actually move on from the last two weeks.
His bat and his clutch ability matter. So does the version of Marte the Diamondbacks believe they can trust.
If they get both, this can fade into the background. If they don’t, it’s going to keep coming back up.
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