Ketel Marte returned to the Diamondbacks lineup Monday for the first time since he went AWOL in Boston on August 17, and his hat had a message on it.
He wrote “I love you Elpidia” on the underside of the brim, a tribute to his late mother.
That is worth pausing on. Marte’s mother died in a car accident in 2017, and he has referenced her regularly in interviews as the person who gave him the strength to keep playing baseball. The hat message is a reminder that whatever fans think of the last two weeks, Marte is a real person carrying real grief.
The context makes it complicated. Marte no-showed the Diamondbacks in Boston, then got spotted at a casino during a home game while he was supposedly on the injured list. The team was blindsided. Manager Torey Lovullo was angry publicly. Diamondbacks president Derrick Hall said Marte had “some explaining to do.” Fans in Arizona booed him loudly in his first game back.
Marte’s return has not gone perfectly. He called his departure “a moment of frustration” and said the team accepted his apology. When asked if he had anything to say to fans directly, he shook his head no. That non-apology to the fans has been a bigger story than the original absence, and it has kept the discourse hot.
Which brings us back to the hat.
The message is either a beautiful public tribute to his mother, or a way to change the subject from his behavior, depending on how much benefit of the doubt you want to give him. Both readings can be true at the same time.
Marte has always been an emotional player. He plays with visible joy. He also plays with visible frustration when things are not going his way. This is not his first drama with the Diamondbacks. It probably will not be the last.
What matters for the team is that Marte is a top-15 hitter in baseball when he is on the field. Arizona is not making the playoffs without him. The Diamondbacks brass knows that, and they made the calculation that welcoming him back was better than the alternative.
Fans get to decide what they want to feel. Some are going to keep booing. Some are going to move on because the alternative is watching Arizona lose more games. That is the reality of being a fan of a professional sports team. You do not always get to choose which players wear your colors.
The hat is a small thing. It is also the kind of small thing that becomes a headline in a story that is not going away. Marte has to know that. He is not stupid. Everything he does now is being watched.
If he wants to actually change the narrative, the answer is to play great baseball down the stretch. Home runs travel further than press conferences. If Marte hits .310 with 10 home runs the rest of the way and Arizona sneaks into October, everyone forgets about Boston and the casino.
The hat message was probably heartfelt. It was also a moment for reflection. Marte’s mother has been gone for almost a decade, and he still writes her name on his hat before every game. That is a real thing. Everyone who has lost a parent understands it.
The rest of the story is still being written. Marte is back. The team needs him. The fans are going to make him earn the love back one game at a time. His mother would probably tell him to do the work.
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.
