The longest-tenured player on the Arizona Diamondbacks is apparently causing some internal frustrations.
Diamondbacks All-Star second baseman Ketel Marte has recently caused teammates and others in the organization to quietly grumble over his propensity to miss games, Nick Piecoro of The Arizona Republic reported on Friday. Piecoro notes that frustrations arose over the time Marte requested off after the burglary of his home last month.
Additionally, Piecoro reports that some believed that Marte’s departure after the All-Star break set in motion the team’s collapse that led to an eventual sell-off at the trade deadline. Piecoro even adds that some have wondered what the team might look like without Marte, pondering the idea of a trade in the offseason.
You can read Piecoro’s full report on the situation here.
Marte, 31, is a three-time All-Star who has been with the Dbacks since 2017. He also remains of their most productive players, batting .296 this season with 23 home runs and 56 RBIs over 89 games.
But Marte did indeed ask for time off following the burglary of his Scottsdale, Ariz. home in mid-July. The thieves reportedly made out with around $400,000 worth of items in an incident that occurred just a couple of weeks after Marte got taunted with a comment about his late mother during a game in June.
Marte ended up missing the first three games of the second half for Arizona. Though the Dbacks won all three of those games, they went 1-7 after that to close out the month of July, leading to some major names being shipped off ahead of the July 31 trade deadline.
The switch-hitting Marte is still under contract through at least 2030 (with a player option for 2031 as well). So while it seems unlikely that Arizona will part ways with a player as effective as Marte still is, some real tensions appear to be mounting within the clubhouse right now for the sub-.500 Dbacks.
