Going forward, Arizona Diamondbacks GM Mike Hazen has three candidates for shortstops. One solution is to move Ketel Marte to second base.
Regarded as a secondary player in general manager Mike Hazen’s lone, major trade of the last off-season, infielder Ketel Marte represents a rise synonymous with the current vocabulary of the Arizona Diamondbacks.
In media sessions throughout the season, field manager Torey Lovullo referred to players in particular, and his team in general, as “trending upward.” While that was regarded a safe, political answer, those words, most of the time, had merit.
With the way the season evolved, Marte definitely trended upward.
After Marte arrived at the Salt River spring training facility, along with pitcher Taijuan Walker from Seattle, he was immediately pushed into a revolving door. Incumbents Nick Ahmed and Chris Owings held the inside edge, and when the Diamondbacks opened the season at home on April 2 against the San Francisco Giants, Owings started at short, managed a walk-off single against closer Mark Malancon, and Marte was assigned to Triple-A Reno.
By late June, that abruptly changed. Ahmed broke his hand in a game against the St. Louis Cardinals, and Owings went down with a broken finger in late July.
That thrust Marte into the line-up at shortstop, and proceeded to produce at the major-league level. At the time of his recall from Reno on June 28, Marte led all in the minors with 105 hits, and finished the season at Arizona with a combined .260 batting average. In 73 games with the Arizona Diamondbacks, Marte hit .242 from the right side, and .268 from the left side. That included five homers, and 18 RBIs.