Marte returns to the D-Backs
Shortstop set to start vs. Giants on Saturday
SAN FRANCISCO – Shortstop Ketel Marte arrived early to AT&T Park on Friday afternoon, his first day back with the Diamondbacks since the tragic death of his mother in a car accident on Sunday, and teammate David Peralta immediately interacted with him in the clubhouse.
“I was talking with him, but I didn’t even ask him how everything was over there,” Peralta said, referring to Marte’s return to the Dominican for the funeral. “I just pretended like nothing happened. I think everybody knows what he’s going through right now, but if you keep reminding him, it’s going to come back.”
Peralta and his teammates are hoping a return to baseball will help take Marte’s mind off the tragedy and perhaps help the healing process. Speaking with reporters a few hours before Friday’s game, Marte said he was feeling better, but he appeared on the verge of tears at multiple points during a short interview.
His mother, Elpidia Valdez, was involved in a car accident on Sunday, an incident that Marte said occurred not long after he spoke to her on the phone. The call happened, he said, just before the Diamondbacks flew from St. Louis to
Chicago late Sunday afternoon.
When the flight landed, he said he got word of the accident but was under the impression his mother was going to be all right.
Not long after, while he was out to dinner with teammates, he found out she died.
“It was definitely heartbreaking,” said Diamondbacks right-hander Taijuan Walker, who was with Marte when he got the news. “I’ve known Ketel since he first got signed by the Mariners. We were just all hanging out and he got that call and it hit me, too. It made me think, ‘What if I would have got a call like that?’ I probably wouldn’t want to play the rest of the season. I’d probably want to be home with my family.”
But Marte said his family wanted him to return to the team.
“They just told me to go back to work,” he said. “(They said), ‘You know what you have to do. Now you have to work harder for us.’ I will work harder for my family, for my mom.”
He had already accomplished one thing this season that his mother had requested: He reached the double-digit mark in home runs, hitting six with Triple-A Reno and four more with the Diamondbacks.
“When I was playing softball in the Dominican (during the offseason) with my friend, she saw me hit a long homer,” Marte said. “One day, before I came to spring training, she said, ‘I want 10 homers this year.’ Now, I’ve got 10 homers. When I hit my last homer, I called her. She had watched the game. I said, ‘Now you’ve got 10 homers, how about that?’ She was crying. It’s a crazy moment for me right now.”
Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said he kept Marte out of the line- up on Friday because he hadn’t picked up a baseball in four days, but he’s planning to start him on Saturday night.
“Hopefully getting back and playing as soon as possible,” Lovullo said, “will take his mind off some things.”