Pirates’ Starling Marte is heating up back home in the Dominican Republic
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic — Starling Marte ignited the burners and bolted from the batter’s box. As the baseball curled into the rightfield corner at Estadio Quisqueya on Tuesday night, Marte placed his wager. He sped around first base and second, challenging the outfielder’s arm, and slid headfirst ahead of the third baseman’s tag. His helmet pinwheeled away in the dirt. Marte pointed into the grandstands, and the home crowd roared.
On this damp December night in Santo Domingo, his native city, Marte flashed major-league midseason form. He tripled and scored, singled and swiped second. Marte has invested two months of his offseason playing for Leones del Escogido in the Dominican Winter League, a circuit primarily packed with prospects and journeymen. After a slow start, Marte caught fire this week and smacked eight hits, including four extra-base hits, with
two walks and three steals in four games.
“I’ve been feeling very good,” Marte said, declaring his health to be “very awesome.”
Players of Marte’s stature, established major leaguers, are a rare sight in winter ball. In his end-of-season meeting with Pirates manager Clint Hurdle and general manager Neal Huntington in September, Marte requested permission to play in the Dominican to make up for at-bats he lost during his 80-game steroid suspension. After witnessing a 77game sample in which Marte batted .275 with a .712 OPS, a sharp decline from his 2016 production, management was inclined to consent.
For Marte, choosing a club was easy. He previously spent parts of five seasons in the Dominican Winter League, from 2009 to 2013, two with Águilas Cibaenas and three with Escogido. The Leones’ stadium is a short drive south from Marte’s childhood home in Villa Mella, an impoverished community in northern Santo Domingo, and his life still revolves around the area.
A year gone awry, Marte decided, would end at Estadio Quisqueya. Here he would attempt to find a foothold following the personal and professional nadir of a three-month exile from baseball. He returned last month to a hometown hero’s welcome, embraced by a fan base eager to see a son of Santo Domingo play in person for the first time in four years. Marte expressed gratitude for once again being able to scan the bleachers and spot his father and two younger sisters.
“It’s very good for my family and friends who don’t have an opportunity to see me in the U.S.,” he said. “When I play here they have a lot of opportunities to come see me. The fans who don’t have visas, it’s very hard for them [to watch one of Marte’s games]. Here, it’s very easy.”
The beginnings of Marte’s baseball career are in scattered ballparks around the city, but one spot, Centro Olímpico, is only seven blocks from Estadio Quisqueya. It was there where 18-year-old Marte trained tirelessly yet was passed on by one MLB team after another. It was there where a vengeful former buscone, a Dominican trainer/agent, torpedoed Marte’s Chicago White Sox tryout by brandishing a gun and scaring away the scout. And it was there where, weeks later, Marte had his fifth tryout for Rene Gayo, the former Pirates director of Latin American scouting fired last month because of alleged financial impropriety, and finally received an offer of $85,000.
Here, Marte said, he sees boys in similar situations. He hopes to serve as a mentor, a source of motivation and encouragement for them. Just before Tuesday’s game, a local youth baseball club descended onto the field near the Escogido dugout and encircled Marte and former major league outfielder Moises Alou. They yelled, “Marte! Marte!” and he smiled for selfies with him.
“They are looking for a tryout or to get signed, and it’s very good for them to come to the stadium to see not only me but the other players doing the best they can in the field,” Marte said. “It’s a great opportunity for those kids to see those guys working hard on the field, to see something they can learn from to take into the future.”
Whatever series of events led to Marte’s testing positive for Nandrolone, an anabolic steroid, in spring training this year, Marte said he has taken precautions to avoid problems this offseason. He coordinated with the training staff at the Pirates’ Dominican academy in La Gila, he said, and they give him the same supplements he takes during the season with the Pirates.
“When I don’t have any more,” he said, “I go [to the academy] and get more.”
Marte plans to finish the regular season with Escogido, remaining on the roster through Dec. 21, before beginning a rest-and-recovery cycle. He’ll prioritize lifting in January, adding back weight he lost in early-offseason conditioning, and prepare for spring training in February. The idea, Marte said, is to “do something here to get better and better when I get there.”