Two weeks, one no-show, one apology
Ketel Marte was back in an Arizona Diamondbacks uniform on Monday, and the first thing he did was talk about Aug. 17. That was the morning he travelled with the team from Atlanta to Boston and then never arrived at Fenway Park. Torey Lovullo found out his second baseman was missing 20 minutes before first pitch.
Speaking through an interpreter, Marte said he had already apologized to his manager and would face the clubhouse next.
“I’m going to stand in front of my teammates like a man. I’m going to ask for forgiveness. We’re all human. We all commit mistakes.”
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“No one made the decision for me”
He called it a moment of frustration and did not try to dress it up as anything else.
“In that instance, I failed (Lovullo) by not showing up,” he said. “That morning I woke up, my body was in pain, and I just couldn’t react. No one made the decision for me. I’m the one who made the decision to not show up.”
Arizona put him on the restricted list, then moved him to the 10-day injured list with inflammation in his left knee. He declined to address a reported sighting at a Phoenix-area casino while he was on that list. Asked whether he had anything to say to Arizona fans, he shook his head.
His agent sat down with Lovullo and general manager Mike Hazen to settle things after Boston. “I’m the type of person that when something’s going on in my life,” Marte said, “I don’t like to talk about it.”
Not the first summer like this
The 32-year-old is a three-time All-Star and a former National League Championship Series MVP, and this is the second year running that his absence has become the story. His home in Arizona was robbed on the night of the 2025 All-Star Game. He travelled to his native Dominican Republic afterwards and missed the first three games out of the break, then apologized once it was reported that some teammates were unhappy with him.
Monday’s game against the Philadelphia Phillies was his first appearance since Aug. 16, batting cleanup as the designated hitter. Fifteen days is a long time for a contender to carry a hole in the middle of its order at this point of the calendar.
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