The Ketel Marte saga has bruised a lot of feelings.
Many fans are blaming the media for poor timing, for sabotaging a hot streak, for loose lips that sink ships. Geraldo Perdomo even interrupted Torey Lovullo’s postgame press conference Sunday in Denver to chide the media, imploring us to leave his shellshocked teammate alone.
Astonishing. Such a scene would never be tolerated in New York or Boston, much less celebrated. Especially when the player in question is so coddled and occasionally self-absorbed.
A brief reminder for the goldfish in the audience: Marte asked off a Monday game entering the final week of the season in 2024, when the Diamondbacks were fighting for their playoff lives. Fair or not, his actions caused deep ripples inside the organization, especially after the team missed out on the postseason by one game.
Athletic heroes generally rise to stardom because they rise to the occasion, playing through pain and injury when it’s paramount to the team’s success. Marte did the opposite. It didn’t sit well with anyone, including a good chunk of teammates. A golden opportunity was lost.
It reached peak absurdity in 2025 when Marte asked off the Sunday before the All-Star Game; irked some teammates by hauling around the bases on a double during an exhibition game, running with reckless abandon; and then granting himself a brief vacation afterwards. His seat on Ken Kendrick’s private plane to Arizona went unoccupied because he was on his way to the Dominican Republic.
Yes, there are mitigating circumstances. Marte was victimized by a coordinated house robbery that occurred while he was at the All-Star Game. But either way, he was never coming back in time for Friday’s game, which struck teammates as incredibly entitled.
Marte also missed Ketel Marte Bobblehead night at Chase Field. He was not in the lineup the following Sunday and the team didn’t pay him during his absence. They are clearly not condoning his behavior. So why are you?
Answer: Because nobody wants to turn on a player as swaggy, entertaining and lovable as Marte. That’s understandable. But please don’t blame the media for telling hard truths at our own peril, out of respect and dedication to the story, the reader, the viewer and the listener.
Veteran baseball columnist Bob Nightengale said the team should’ve suspended Marte for a week instead of running cover for their treatment of a star player. Otherwise, the manager is bound to lose his grip on the room. And there are clearly signs that some players have long been irritated with Marte because Lovullo won’t hold him accountable.
This is where Marte is both the villain and a victim in one of the strangest episodes in team history, a player handled so gently that maybe he never thought he was doing anything egregiously wrong.
When Perdomo crashed and upstaged Lovullo’s press conference in Denver, hellbent on providing shelter for Marte, many hailed the emergence of the next great clubhouse leader in team history.
It sounded different to me. And it felt like the end of an era and a manager.
Reach Bickley at dbickley@arizonasports.com. Listen to Bickley & Marotta weekdays from 6 a.m. – 10 a.m. on 98.7 FM and the Arizona Sports app.
