Ketel Marte Moved to Diamondbacks IL After Strange Absence, Lovullo Fights Back Tears
The Ketel Marte situation in Arizona took another turn on Thursday. The Diamondbacks moved their All-Star second baseman from the restricted list to the 10-day injured list with left knee inflammation, per ESPN. That closes one chapter of a very strange week, and probably opens another one.
Here is the timeline. Marte traveled with the Diamondbacks to Boston for a series at Fenway Park. He then failed to report for the series opener against the Red Sox on Monday. He missed all three games. Arizona placed him on the restricted list to buy time and recalled Jose Fernandez from Triple-A Reno. Marte flew back to Phoenix, went through an evaluation, and an MRI confirmed inflammation in the knee.
The knee piece traces back to last Friday, when Marte exited a loss to the Braves with soreness. He took an injection, returned Sunday, and looked functional. Then came the Boston no-show. General manager Mike Hazen has said publicly that he expects Marte back before the end of the season. That is the good news.
The part that stuck with a lot of people was manager Torey Lovullo’s press conference. Lovullo fought back tears while addressing Marte’s status. He said, “I love him, and I care for him. He’ll be okay. He is fine.” That is not a normal answer about a knee injury. That is a manager talking about a human being.
Give Lovullo credit. He didn’t dodge, he didn’t cover with baseball jargon, and he didn’t pretend this was a routine day-to-day thing. Baseball has spent the last several years slowly learning that its players are people with lives that don’t stop when they walk into the clubhouse. Marte specifically had a previous restricted list stint in 2025 tied to a home burglary that put his family in real danger. Whatever is going on now, he has been through a lot.
On the field, the timing is brutal. Arizona is one game behind the Padres for the final National League Wild Card spot as of Thursday. Marte is the offense. He was hitting .249 with 21 home runs and 67 RBI on the season, a three-time All-Star, the guy the lineup is built around. Losing him for even ten days in the middle of a playoff push is the kind of thing that can decide whether the Diamondbacks are still playing in October.
Jose Fernandez getting the call from Reno is fine. He is a functional big leaguer who can catch a ball at second base. But Fernandez is not replacing what Marte provides, and everyone in the Diamondbacks clubhouse knows it. The next two weeks are going to be an audition for the rest of the lineup to carry more of the load.
Now the bigger question. Arizona has 40-something games left. Is Marte back in ten days, back in three weeks, or back at all this season? Hazen sounded confident he’d return, and the IL move at least gives the team a way to keep his roster spot warm without leaving him in restricted list limbo. That is a real signal that the front office thinks this ends with him playing meaningful baseball again in September.
The Diamondbacks handled this correctly. They gave him the space he needed, they didn’t leak, they didn’t get out over their skis with a hot-take press release. Lovullo said the right things, in the right way, with real emotion. That matters.
Now they need Marte to get healthy and get back. The Wild Card race is not going to wait for anybody.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
