Just a few hours before his team began the biggest series of the year against the Phillies, Diamondbacks second baseman Ketel Marte took the podium in the media room at Chase Field to address a unique situation.
On Aug. 17, Marte failed to show up for a game in Boston against the Red Sox. The Diamondbacks at the time claimed they didn’t know where he was. Minutes before first pitch, Marte was placed on the restricted list for not showing up to the ballpark. He eventually went back to Arizona to get an MRI on his knee and was transferred from the restricted list to the 10-day injured list with left knee inflammation.
After spending the minimum time on the IL, Marte was back in the Arizona lineup on Monday night against the Phillies. He’s got a lot of explaining to do — and he didn’t do much of it — during his first news conference since failing to show up to a game.
“A moment of frustration,” Marte said through a team interpreter. “(I’m) the type of person where if something is going on in my life, I don’t want to talk about it. So that’s kind of what was going on.”
When asked if he had a message for D-Backs fans, Marte shrugged his shoulders. After the game, he clarified to reporters that he didn’t understand the initial question. Marte said he planned on eventually addressing all of his teammates at some point.
With the Phillies on the other side, it’s easy to wonder how the drama would have unfolded in Philadelphia. There is sports talk radio in Arizona, but it’s not as prominent as it is in Philly. Philadelphia fans pride themselves on holding their athletes accountable. Players who quit on their team are remembered forever for all of the wrong reasons.
In his first at-bat, Marte heard a mix of cheers, but mostly boos in front of the home crowd. He went 1-for-3 with a walk and a single in his return.
It may have sounded completely different if the Marte saga went down in Philadelphia. There may have been no coming back.
“In Philly, you would definitely have to have good answers in a sense that it’s something really important,” Trea Turner said. “So, I don’t know. I don’t want to speculate. I don’t know what’s going on. I haven’t read enough, just hopefully everything is OK on his end.”
As Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo sat in the back of the media room and listened in on Marte’s press conference, Phillies interim manager Don Mattingly was busy preparing for the game. Mattingly didn’t want to get into hypotheticals, but a player not showing up to a game would probably be high on the list of potential MLB managerial headaches.
“I never really had that problem, so I don’t know how to answer it,” Mattingly said.
In baseball, it may just be a Marte problem. Apparently, he’s had at least one unexcused absence in each of the last four seasons. No call, no shows happen in other lines of work where salaries do not compare to those of major leaguers. Staying home is not an option for more than 99% of big leaguers, who pride themselves on consistency and are paid handsomely to play a sport for at least six months out of the year, plus spring training. The lesser paid ones know that they are expendable and can’t afford to make that kind of decision. The stars, especially the ones on big contracts, know that it’s unacceptable.
“We haven’t had a summer off in, you know, some of us in 20 years,” Turner said. “We’d love to be on a boat and do that, but, you know, it’s what we signed up for. That’s why we get paid. It’s just like any other job in the sense of what is asked of you and if you don’t want to do it, then you shouldn’t be here.
“Does it suck sometimes? Sure, but at the same time, we have, you know, probably one of the best jobs in the world. We can all complain, but when you take a step back, I don’t think we’d want to be doing anything else at any other place. Gotta have good perspective sometimes.”
If a player doesn’t show up for a game, it’s understandable if everyone jumps to the worst conclusion. Wellness checks at a player’s residence or hotel room can rule out a medical emergency. But if the player is physically OK, it may be something more complicated. That’s when it’s up to team leaders to make sure they know what’s going on with the player.
“Talk to him,” Turner said when asked what he would do if a teammate didn’t show up to a game. “I think that’s most important. Find out what’s going on. Let your teammates know you care about them and you are there for them. If it’s something that they messed up, then you let them know. And if it’s something that, you know, you need to have their back to kind of defend them in a situation, then you do that too.”
The Phillies and 28 other teams hope to never have to deal with a star player missing games due to their own failure to show up. It’s a mess in Arizona. It would be an unmitigated disaster in Philly.
