[Underdog] Nightengale: Ketel Marte continues to frustrate segments of the Diamondbacks organization by opting to take days off.
They have played 64 games this season and he has played in 60 of them
How is that an issue?
I too have called out 4 times this year so far
You are literally frustrating entire vast segments of your organization. Hope you’re happy. Dick.
Those KPIs aren’t going to KPI themselves, so fucking selfish of you to take some days off.
How can you live with yourself not spending every waking moment on delivering shareholder value?
Multiple meetings about how our KPIs werent great, then a meeting telling us all that they have adjusted the KPI metrics and it actually was a software issue and not us.
Damn I just got some PTSD .
Did you finish your TPS reports?
I think everyone would be happier in Colorado if Dick Monfort took a few more days off.
Probably is honestly, corporate America blows lol
Looks like you’ve been missing a lot of work lately.
I wouldn’t say that I’ve been missing it, Bob!
Yeeaahh.. I’m going to need you to quit posting on reddit and get the new cover sheet on your tps reports.
Come in on Saturday. Sunday too.
They let you guys go home for the weekends? Pssh, lucky.
In two months? Those are rookie numbers.
And I am frustrated with you
Lol same. Kin care, suck it
58 starts. On pace for 147. If they want him to play against certain starters, and he doesn’t, that could be an issue.
Marte has played more than 147 games in exactly two seasons. 147 would be pretty solid for him.
Yea they’re doing this to keep Marte healthy and on the field for as many games as possible
If “they” were doing this to keep him healthy then wouldn’t “they” not be unhappy about him taking these games off?
I mean you can agree with a decision and still be annoyed that you want your best player playing more games over a season.
I think it’s the games he chooses to take off? The other tweet about this specifically mentioned the most recent Ohtani start.
It was vs Ohtani but more importantly with Gallen as our starter, so a very reasonable game to give up
Dang what happened to Gallen
Time? He hasn’t been good since 2024.
milk spoiled
So looking back at the gallen for jazz swap, who ended up coming out of it for the better?
Jazz is, well, still jazz but hes a legit 30⁄30 threat who has lots of cold streaks.
Is gallen fully cooked at this point?
Zac Gallen provided the Diamondbacks with 18.6 WAR, 2 top-5 Cy Young seasons, 1 All-Star season, and was part of a World Series team.
Jazz Chisholm gave the Marlins 6.9 WAR, and 1 All-Star season. They then traded Jazz for Agustin Ramirez (former top 100 prospect, currently had -0.5 career WAR), Jared Serna (no longer a top 30 prospect for the Marlins, currently has a career .608 OPS in AAA), and Abrahan Ramirez (also no longer a top 30 Marlins prospect, but he does at least have an .805 OPS in A-ball this year
So unless Ramirez pops off, the Diamondbacks won that trade pretty handily, imo. Gallen’s WAR is nearly triple the WAR Chisolm, Ramirez, Serna, and the other Ramirez have provided the Marlins.
He’ll have random really good starts or even stretches which makes it all even more annoying
His fastball is cooked. He’s hanging on for dear life with his breaking stuff but they’re starting to get cooked too.
I can somewhat understand punting regular season games and resting a guy, but if they have postseason aspirations it seems important to get experience against a playoff lock’s elite pitcher in your division.
I don’t think they are thinking about playoffs. I feel like their business model is to spend enough to be okay.
I think they want to be able to play meaningful games as long into the season as possible to get butts in the seats in the last half of the season and get season ticket holders to renew. If you have an injured Ketel Marte, you lose a lot of interest.
It’s more that the team can’t prepare. It’s not as simple as “I’m taking today off” like most people would in a normal job. They are trying to win ball games, so they have lineups planned for pitching matchups and such. When he pulls a “I’m taking today off,” he puts the organization in a rough spot because they have to restructure the lineup, change the strategy for late game pinch hitting decisions, and figure out who will be the best to play 2nd that day. It also makes his teammates frustrated too, because they want to win ball games, and when the teams star just leaves the team hanging, it has a big effect on morale. In general, Torey Lovullo doesn’t get NEARLY enough love for the shit he has to navigate in that clubhouse to keep the team competitive, especially with Marte.
The worse problem is that I bet the team has tried to work with him to schedule days off for him, and he won’t do it.
When he pulls a “I’m taking today off,” he puts the organization in a rough spot because they have to restructure the lineup, change the strategy for late game pinch hitting decisions, and figure out who will be the best to play 2nd that day.
Oh no, think of the… minutes… it takes to do that.
I mean, if he is planned in the lineup days ahead of time and then approaches the manager the morning of the game and says he’s not playing, that is pretty shitty and could totally be disruptive to several games’ worth of plans.
Sure, it’s not like last minute disruptions are uncommon, but I think the Dbacks have a right to be frustrated if they’re dealing with them more often because their star player just decides he needs the day off, on the day of, and not because of injuries.
I don’t know if that’s what’s happening but that’s what the guy you replied to said
You managers make plans to help the team win?
Oh no, not several days’ worth of plans. I hope the manager is ok.
You’re being very weird about this
Because he’s equating it to a normal job.
Unsure where in that paragraph he was
This guy (not Marte) is the type of coworker that make work more unbearable than it already is. Yes everyone deserves a break when they need it, yes mental health days are just important as physical illness, but you have to at least be somewhat considerate to the people you work with because we’re all in the same boat.
But if you ever bring it up, they’ll bring out the old tired accusation of you being a corporate boot licker.
And how would you feel if you were his teammate? You show up and Ohtani is on the mound, and you’re teammate that is one of your best hitters takes it off? It weakens the lineup. Ohtani can just pitch around certain guys because he knows he won’t get punished. It affects the guys around him in the order, fucking up their numbers, making them look worse, feel worse. Plus, they don’t have the best opportunity to win. All because the guy who gets paid the most on the team decides he just doesn’t want to play that day
And lets go beyond that day. Now EVERYDAY the team is like “what if Ketel decides he doesn’t want to play today?” it creates a frustrating clubhouse atmosphere, and again, Torey Lovullo doesn’t get enough credit for managing that within the clubhouse.
“Cool man, see you tomorrow, next man up.”
I’d rather he take that game off than a winnable one. You think the bullpen guys are like “Oh boy, we better be extra-ready because this is gonna be a close game”?
If I was getting paid millions of dollars to play baseball, I wouldn’t use my teammate taking a day off as an excuse for me being worse at my job. In fact, I would think my pathetic attitude in that scenario would be worse than Marte’s.
Go look up Carlos Guillen’s 2004 Breakout season. You really think he miraculously got 40% better than league average at the plate? No, he had Pudge Rodriguez behind him so he got better pitches to hit because they couldn’t pitch around him. Same season look at AJ Pierzynski. He hit into the same amount of double plays that he hit in the two seasons prior. Who did he hit behind? Barry Bonds. Its not an excuse, its how the game works you muppet.
There is an ungodly amount of evidence that the person behind you does not in any way impact how the hitter in front of them. There IS, however, evidence that the person in front of a hitter impacts the hitter behind them.
Ungodly sure sounds like you know ball. And yet there is a reason you put your best hitters that drive in runs at 2,3,4, and typically a guy who gets on base in the leadoff spot. So please share with me the ungodly amount of evidence that says that none of that matters.
Ivan Rodriguez played in 57 of the Tiger’s first 64 games in 2004.
Ketel Marte has played in 60 of the DBacks first 64 games this year.
Thanks for proving that this entire issue is nonsense lmao
Jesus Christ you don’t get it do you? How would you feel if a hockey player did that? Its not about the games played, its about having your teammates trust that you are going to be there for them. This has been a ongoing issue with Ketel Marte going back to his days in SEATTLE when he was a ROOKIE. If his teammates can’t trust him to play when he is available, how can they trust that he is giving it his all when he is in the lineup?
Hockey players more than anyone else would understand how dumb this is.
It’s definitely not a great look to call out when you’re healthy but it’s also not that hard to change a lineup lol guys get scratched all the time. But choosing to take a day off when they want you in is definitely rare lol
I mean…….if one of the Dodgers does that, it’s not really an issue due to the current depth on the roster. But I’m not familiar with the D-Backs depth chart. It’s entirely possible they might have to call a guy up or a guy scheduled for a rest day might have to end up playing and messing with the days off schedule. And that could breed bad blood if another guy is supposed to have a rest day and ends up needing to play because Marte decides he wants a day off. This is more than just the time involved in changing lineups here.
OK, so he’s done this multiple times and they still haven’t figured out how to adjust their strategy to account for it? That sounds like a crappy manager.. It is the manager’s responsibility to have contingency plans for unavailable workers. Baseball manager, office job manager, fast food manager, etc. It’s all the same. It isn’t the employee’s fault if the manager doesn’t know how to handle his team.
How much does the manager get paid to organize the lineup? Oh no!
It’s nightengale. There’s literally no reason to take this tweet seriously
His source is definitely a recent ASU grad ticket sales rep who got loaded one too many keystone lites.
These stories have been a thing since last season… there’s some in the organization who are trying to get rid of him or are trying to use the media to get through to him (bad idea)
Damaging the public perception of someone you JUST extended for 6 years is certainly an action that can be taken.
Remember there can be conflicting attitudes within an organization
Yes, including petulant self-defeating ones… I’ve followed Cleveland sports for 4 decades, I’m aware.
I really hope we don’t start getting into “load management” discourse here like they do in r/NBA. It’s exhausting
I think it was more of him taking off game 3 against the Dodgers in the most recent series.
It’s not but someone higher up in the organization is trying to make it an issue.
Agreed! Look at Matt Shaw for the cubs- taking off in the hunt for the playoffs for a funeral event where they sold merch? This is not a big deal. Who cares.
ketel load management is not the same as kawhi load management
Does he have sick pay?
It’s baseball? No reason not to play all 162 of your decent enough, not injured, and not a catcher. It’s not that taxing.
One guy played 162 games last year and 31 guys played more than the 147 Marte is currently on pace for. You know nothing about how baseball is played in the current era.
It’s rare, but there were 6 guys who played at least 162, including Devers who played 163. 69 guys played more than 147.
And how would you know how taxing it is to play 162 games?
He’s got a history of injuries. Is it better to play til he HAS to take long stretches off?
That’s what Torey said. Give him one game off to save two weeks of games. He also homered the day after
Exactly. It’s not like Marte has a history of playing lazy or anything. If he feels like he needs days off to stay healthy, I think he deserves the benefit of the doubt.
This is probably coming from execs. If it’s agree upon between Marte, the manager and training staff then it shouldn’t be a big deal.
This sounds like some bullshit a C-suite person would bitch about
Some c-suite person bitching about it during their 3 hour “working” lunch, or from the tee box at 2:00 on a Thursday.
What would Mariners fans know about that?
Maybe they should get AI to replace him since they love that shit so much.
This is the sort of article that starts making its way out there to soften the fan blowback if they decide to trade him. Just saying…
That’s a good point that’s how they do.. first they leak hit pieces. From there the media takes the story and runs with it
That’s how you control your fanbase and their expectations
There are lots of sports journalists, there aren’t a lot of journalists who report on sports.
That makes zero sense. A team is not going to do anything that might lower a player’s potential trade value in the market.
Idk, I very much doubt GMs/analytics people care at all about a manufactured story of him taking a day off here and there. This is definitely targeted at fans.
This doesn’t affect how teams would look at Marte. People in the league can talk to people and figure out what the situation was with the days off and make their own conclusions.
Leaking it to the media like this is 100% to try to sway fans that it’s “not that bad” if they eventually trade him because he was difficult to deal with.
Would never ever happen. First, imagine the Front Office meeting: “ok we are seriously considering trading Marte. Let’s leak a fake story that he is causing problems in the clubhouse taking days off and his teammates are pissed. Then during trade negotiations w will tell teams it was a fake story to fool our fans.” Secondly, they could always do it AFTER a trade if fans were outraged and they decided to use a story to soften the blow: “listen fans, part if the reason we traded him was bc he was causing problems in the clubhouse, etc…” It would be a totally dumb move to leak it now, especially when it appears to be inaccurate bc he has played 60 of 64 games and the post was from Nightengale.
Ummm boston with devers?
I believe he’s got 10 & 5 rights now so has full no trade protection iirc
Yes he earned his 10 & 5 shortly after the season started. That’s why the off-season trade drama was happening.
Except he has 10⁄5 right so that would be stupid to do
The myth of “consensual” days off.
Isn’t there somebody you forgot to ask?
Straight out of the red Sox’s play book
“Ketel Marte continues to frustrate segments of the Diamondbacks organization by missing 4 games for the entire season, so far.”
FTFY.
Unless he’s caught partying to excess on voluntary off days or McGuiring in the players’ parking lot, I’m of the belief that athletes know their limits the best at the professional level
For those unaware of what Mcguiring means. Love the new adjective you’ve created btw.
https://youtu.be/qQqb_l0Y7Ak?si=DLQoML_elhH9Ke5M
I always forget how much more funny it is that Cal went for the jugular after a pop up in a 6 run blowout. You just know his reaction was bait so that he could drop that nuke lol
Or CJ Abrams going to a casino on an all nighter before a day game lol
Dudes a vet, isn’t a trouble maker, has an injury history, and is scuffing to be productive right now. If he wants a day off, trust that he needs it.
He’s played in 60 games..
Isn’t Ketel playing through nagging injuries, including a hamstring issue? I don’t see the problem here. He’s played in 60 games out of 64 so far. Personally, I’d be grateful to one of my star players continuing to play through so much physical pain.
I imagine if it’s causing organizational frustration that this isn’t an agreed-upon load management type thing, it’s been a narrative for a couple years now
If anything I would think the team would value his health overall. They are right on the bubble, losing Ketal for to an IL STINT has to be worse than 4 missed games overall
And lower back pain too
This is such a nothing burger title and article the DBacks have played 64 games and he’s played in 60 of them that’s pretty standard and not at all crazy amount of days off. Especially for someone with an injury history
Ohh shut up Boob
Pro athletes frustrating their bosses just like me and my bosses frfr
Torey has all his players take scheduled days off throughout the season. Missing only 4 games this season seems completely in line with that.
Imagine being upset at one of the most consistently good players on your team missing literally 0.0625% of games.
Edit: Decimals are hard. 6.25%
Well 6.25% but I get the point
I forgot to move my decimal… It’s a Sunday
How does thst usually work? I know that manager can assign planned rest days, but players can take one themselves?
Maybe Marte sends a text to the manager?
They havr to sign in to workday and use up their accumulated pto and then put their time off in everyone’s outlook calendar.
Getting someone to cover his shift is the hardest part
tHaT’s tHe MaNaGeR’s JoB
This does have me wondering. Do MLB players technically have sick days or vacation days? I’d imagine it’s kinda understood not to use them unless it’s en emergency but as (mostly) American employees they have to be entitled to a fair amount of rights? I’m kinda fascinated with the HR side of MLB employment that we rarely see
Guys sit for having a cold all the time
Part of the health sciences team job is to communicate with players to understand when they’re run down and need a day off
They can’t make you take the field…
Someone in this organization keeps putting out these hit pieces on Ketel and it’s pissin me off
I don’t think anyone is. I think Bob here is making shit up because he needs grist for the mill.
Reporters are liars. That’s what they do, day in and day out.
Well if it was your douchebag owner, he wouldn’t bother doing it anonymously.
So it’s probably a front office sycophant, if I had to guess. Idk enough about the Dbacks org to speculate beyond that, though.
There has been so much talk about Marte but he always looks like he gets along with his teammates to me.
this totally reads like exec slandering their own player to make fans turn on him so that the org doesnt get huge blowback if/when they trade him. it’s complete BS and ketel doesnt deserve this treatment. i just hope dbacks fans dont take the bait
Some unfortunately have, I see plenty of “fans” eager to trade him because he acts like a “diva” or whatever. It’s stupid and makes me realize that there are really REALLY gullible people out there
Ketel is our ride or die. This club has literally been built around him for the past 8 years.
Their owner seems like a prick that resents having to actually pay his players for their contracts.
The carroll extension and signing of burnes would deflect that statement
Yeah, to give Kendrick credit he has gone slightly over budget the last several seasons to try for another deep playoff push. It didn’t pan out but he was the one that pushed to sign Montgomery. They also signed E-Rod and just this past off-season they “splurged” and brought back Merrill and Zac. Not saying their moves have paid off but Kendrick hasn’t been shy about paying for some FA after the 2023 run.
Yep. He definitely has been trying. A lot worse owners out there.
We’re doing this again?
He has one fewer game appearance than Perdomo and Carroll, the games played leaders, and 58 of 60 games played were starts. If you’re losing the plot over 4⁄6 games, that’s a you problem.
Some doofus in the corporate suite clearly doesn’t like him and has it out for Ketel, and is idiotically trying to churn up noise to get him cut loose.
The White Sox may be my main but lived in AZ for two years and really grew to respect the D-Backs.
Boob keeps making shit up. Just the other day he said we were 100% selling at the deadline because it would get him some attention.
The games he didn’t start
April 12th: Sunday at Phillies, opener, pinch hit in the 8th, DBacks win 4-3
April 14th: Tuesday at Orioles, Trevor Rogers, DBacks win 4-3
May 1st: Friday at Cubs, Colin Rea, Cubs win 6-5, Marte pinch hits in 9th
May 8th: Friday vs Mets, Nolan McLean, Mets win 3-1
May 17th: Sunday at Rockies, Michael Lorenzen, DBacks win 8-6
June 3rd: Wednesday vs Dodgers, Shohei Ohtani, Dodgers win 7-0
So almost certainly a complaint about not facing Ohtani in a game where the DBacks got 2 hit and lost by 7
If the DBacks are THAT upset that someone needs to call Boob to drag Marte in the press over it then just trade the guy. This is total bullshit
The guy is a star who keeps signing under market deals. The dbacks should be treating him with the reverence the guardians give Ramirez, and instead some turd in their org puts leaks stuff like this.
Damn someone in the Dbacks org must really hate the fact that Marte is the best player on the team
He’s taken… 4 days? Is that right, 4? And he’s dealing with lingering issues? Huh
Bro the D-backs are trying to kill their own vibes
This is the second season in a row that someone in the front office has laundered this BS through the press. If it was a problem last year then they should have traded him. If it is a problem this season they should trade him instead of floating this garbage out again.
Why are they bitching at him? when he’s played pretty well and been injury free compared to other seasons
Yea I’d be frustrated too. They should trade him to the mariners
(1) In spring training every year for the last few seasons, Marte and team manager Luvollo extensively discussed his extremely diligent regimen for training, diet and rest.
Marte developed it himself in the offseason between 2022 and 2023.
Everyone has been positive about it
(2) This regimen (including regular rest) is frequently cited as the reason why he has avoided the severe hamstring injuries (2017;2021-2022) — and significantly improved his performance from 2023 to current.
(3) With the clear results of performance and injury avoidance, it defies logic that anyone in the organization would speak negatively about it.
(4) Nightengale is not trustworthy.
He’s been flatly wrong before and withdrawn, apologized and/or deleted tweets/stories
He engages in controversy for clicks/views
He often hits up low level sources and twists their words based on questions he asks
So he could have asked a seemingly harmless question
“Confidentially, is it harder to win when Ketel Marte isn’t in the lineup?”
And of course the answer is yes bc he’s an All-Star…… but that gets twisted into a tweet
“Team is frustrated with Marte”
I’m so tired of this redass mentality of “HUSTLE DOWN THE LINE ON EVERY GROUND BALL” and “PLAY EVERY DAY LIKE THE IRON MAN.” The alternative is your dude taking 30 games off because he pulled a hammy sprinting to beat an easy ground ball out.
Marte has played in almost 94% of the D-backs’ total games, what are they complaining about lmao
That 6% that he didn’t play but they had to pay him for. Kendrick seems like that boomer boss that resents having to give you PTO and holiday pay.
They need to figure out who in the org keeps pushing this crap and cut ties. There is no benefit whatsoever to the team leaking this. Hurts his trade value and pisses the player off. Plus he now has 10 & 5 rights so the time to trade him was in the offseason. He has a long history of soft tissue injuries. I’d rather him sit out every 8-10 games than inevitably break down and miss half the season.
This shit right here is why unions are important.
Yeah, he has a vodka side hustle going on
There’s nothing wrong with someone knowing their limit and taking a day off to rest and recuperate.
I wonder how much of this are just the local idiot loud mouths being local idiot loudmouths.
IIRC, they were the ones trying to drive Ketel out of PHX over the offseason.
Load management
Alec Bohm plays every day, give Dombrowski a call
Most people aren’t Matt Olson.
Here comes the trade talks soon 😆
We were 9 games above .500, then the same articles kept coming out on Marte again, now we’re only 2 games over .500. Same stuff happened last year when we went on the downward slide. It’s always sabotage here
That segment of executives can pack up and fuck off. Still running these tired baseless reports for a guy with a full no trade clause, who is also coming up on becoming the longest tenured diamondback in franchise history. Ketel has a history of soft tissue injuries and scheduled off days have been stressed by torey and the coaches for YEARS! I for one want my star players to take a day if needed during the 6 month season if that means longevity and availability at the end of the year. For fucks sake boob.
Unacceptable. Trade him to the Yankees we’ll deal with him
once the giants leave town, its vacation time i guess
Oh yeah he sucks you should trade him to my team for sure to get him out. Also he had injury issues for years maybe he found a way to stay healthy and you should let him.
Seems early for a hit piece
Boob can fuck himself
Ah, the NBAzation of MLB begins. Make millions of dollars and expect “load management.”
Someone at UD lost a lot of $$ on this
Can we just let him?? I mean he’s our superstar who’s been with the team as long as anyone besides Luis Gonzalez. He’s performing well and if he wants a day off I say give it to him. He’ll know his own body better than anyone and if he thinks he needs a break here and there I’m all for it.
Remember when he got that White Sox fan banned for life for saying “ I texted your mom last night” lol? Sawwwwwwfffttttt
This org pulled this same crap with Justin Upton a decade ago, and has generally been far too comfortable talking shit about their own players.
Good
Why are the dbacks so messy? Owner maybe? I remember they gave Jordan Montgomery a load of shit a few years back after getting injured. Maybe the execs should stfu
Monty showed up in 2024 overweight and out of shape and played like ass the whole season. Going down with TJS in 2025 was just cherry on the cake.
The Montgomery blame was 100% justified. He showed up out of shape, played terribly, blamed anyone but himself and just didn’t care. This article is just another bullshit piece to try and pry Ketel away.
Dam this is almost as messy as the Mets lmao
I mean they can always just share some more info 😂
Starting to strongly sound like the Diamondbacks are the issue here…
Ok ok, well take him off your hands…
Hmm
The article is on the AZ sports site. It’ll probably be brought up tomorrow morning with Bickley and Marotta who are like besties with Derrick Hall. If Hall didn’t want this on the site, he would’ve ensured this was never published and not give it credence.
Uh what
This is kind of interesting, actually. It sounds like the crime here is the player taking the initiative to pace himself vs. the manager making that decision, which is the way it’s supposed to work in baseball, culturally. There’s some theater at play here where the player is supposed to act like he’s always ready to play, always ready to fight for the win, and the manager’s job is to be the voice of reason that knows better and forces a day off for the player’s own good. But the reality on the ground is probably much more nuanced than that and Marte’s code violation here is probably just a bunch of nonsense.
Isn’t he playing well? Didn’t he just win them a huge game the other night?
The controversy last time was that he is managing his innings so he doesn’t get hurt, and that the org is aware of it/in charge.
I don’t see why it’s still a problem now if they know this is the plan.
2 walk offs in the past couple weeks vs Division opponents, org is probably mad they got robbed of extra innings!
Should trade him to the Dodgers for Alex Freeland because the Dodgers like giving players days off.
Load Management is in baseball now. 😄
Dodgers did it all last year.
it has been for years, they play 162 off days here and there are normal
Always has been, unless your name is Cal Ripken or Lou Gehrig.
Only 5 players played in all 162 games last season
Alonso, Olson, Elly, Rooker and Schwarber
And only 4 in 2024
Alonso, Castellanos, Olson and Ozuna
I was just joking. Everyone needs a day off or two when that many games are played
When you get paid that kind of money then yeah, completely reasonable.
Dudes played in 60 out of 64 games lol