Ketel Marte could be back in the Arizona lineup early next week, Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said Monday.
Marte hasn’t played since failing to show up for the team’s game in Boston on Aug. 17. Lovullo said at the time that the Diamondbacks didn’t know where the star second baseman was, and the club subsequently placed him on the restricted list.
Marte left Boston and returned to Phoenix, where he underwent an MRI that revealed inflammation in his left knee. He and his agent met in person with Diamondbacks general manager Mike Hazen and Lovullo on Thursday, and the team reinstated Marte from the restricted list and transferred him to the 10-day injured list.
He could be back as soon as the opener of a three-game series against the visiting Philadelphia Phillies on Aug. 31.
“That’s what we’re thinking about,” Lovullo said. “I think that will be the 10th day or the 11th day, so there is definitely a strategy to get him back on the field, get him healthy.”
Lovullo said of Marte’s rehab work on Monday, “He hit in the lab. He was doing a lot more baseball activity. He was finally cleared to take some (batting practice) today, so very encouraging. … He’s going to have several days to go out and continue to get that build-up and be as ready as possible.”
Marte generated more headlines on Friday when multiple photos and videos showed him playing roulette at a casino in Scottsdale, Ariz., at the same time the Diamondbacks were playing a home game.
Lovullo, asked about it that night, said of Marte, “He’s free to do whatever he wants. That’s how I look at it. As long as he wakes up tomorrow morning and posts and gets his work done at (the team’s training facility), which I am certain he will, that’s all that matters to me right now.”
Marte, 32, is batting .249 with a .314 on-base percentage, a .446 slugging percentage, 21 homers and 67 RBIs through 118 games this year. The three-time All-Star has a .278/.348/.470 career batting line with 192 homers and 654 RBIs in 1,348 games with the Seattle Mariners (2015-16) and Arizona.