4:54pm: Manager Torey Lovullo told reporters (as well as team pregame and postgame radio host Steve Zinsmeister) today that Marte is expected to miss “weeks instead of days” due to his ailing hamstring. A more specific timetable for Marte’s return to action won’t be available until he meets with team doctors back in Arizona.
12:07pm: As expected, the Diamondbacks officially placed Ketel Marte on the 10-day injured list, a day after the second baseman suffered a left hamstring strain while running the bases in Friday’s 6-4 win over the Nationals. Infielder Tim Tawa was called up from Triple-A Reno in the corresponding move.
Tawa will be making his Major League debut the first time he appears in a game. Garrett Hampson figures to get most of the playing time at second base in Marte’s absence, and Tawa will essentially take Hampson’s spot as a utilityman. Over his five minor league seasons, Tawa has played primarily as a second baseman and at all three outfield positions, while also logging some time at the other three infield spots.
An 11th-round pick for the Diamondbacks in the 2021 draft, Tawa took a step closer to the big leagues when Arizona added him to its 40-man roster last November in advance of the Rule 5 Draft. Beyond his defensive versatility, Tawa has also posted some increasingly strong numbers at the plate during his minor league career, including a .317/.388/.665 slash line and 13 homers over 183 plate appearances at Triple-A Reno.
The usual caveats apply about the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League environment, yet it is easy to see why the D’Backs wanted to retain a multi-position player with these kinds of numbers. While Tawa’s time on Arizona’s roster likely isn’t going to last beyond Marte’s IL stint, the 26-year-old infielder will get a prized opportunity to show what he can go at the MLB level.
Blue Jays extended vlad jr 14 years and 500M
Dbacks extended Marte who promptly extended his hamstring. Weird.
You used the past tense “extended” like it’s already done.
@Joeypower
Not yet. But, if they do, that contract will not age well… They should be trading him.
Wouldn’t surprise me if Tawa outplays Hampson.
Marte pulled an Anthony Rendon.
Ketel Marte is great, any team would love to have him.
But why extend him when the team had control to 2028, when he’d be 34 years old? Some players still perform after 34 and some wear down before that. Pulling a hammy at age 29, after signing an extension, seems like a bad sign.
Wish him the best and health but Dbacks gotta be concerned.
I’m guessing it’s AZ saying, “thanks for signing that team friendly extension a few years ago when you were a little healthier and getting MVP votes so here’s a more player friendly one that’ll take you through to retirement!”
If that’s true it’s super classy
I am 100% convinced some teams absolutely do this- like when the Twins immediately and unnecessarily extended and overpaid Phil Hughes after he signed with them for 2 years the year prior, coming off a down platform season- and the Yankees overpaid Hughes by a couple million his final year of arbitration.
I am convinced there are some players that teams love so much that even if the player underperforms or can’t stay healthy enough to justify a deal, teams will give them an extension or some kind of league average/free agency value contract to set them for life as a kinda ‘thanks and sorry it didn’t really work out, but we don’t want you to walk away from the past 10 years or lifetime of hard work empty handed.”
I think maybe it was about pushing some salary later to free up budget space in the shorter term? Basically taking a loan from Marte and the extension part is the cost of borrowing. Kind of like how everyone is doing deferred money now. Buy now, pay later with interest.
Yes. That’s what it looks like. Defer some now for us and we’ll pay you for doing it
Ketel who? Tawa is 1/2 with a BB, RBI and run scored thru 7 innings. Good job, kid.
Tawa’s promotion is a high-leverage test of how Rule 5 protections, positional versatility, and injury-based call-up windows can be used to optimize postseason roster composition long before October — and long before anyone even notices what’s happening.
No one notices because he was protected from Tule 5 back when he was put on 40 man roster. And if Tawa is playing meaningful games in late Aug and Sept due to Marte being injured there will most likely b no Oct baseball for DBacks.
Way to use AI tho, it really helped contribute nothing of value here…
@Tigers3232
You claim Tawa’s Rule 5 protection last November negates my point because ‘no one notices’ a past event, but that’s a misfire—my argument isn’t about the protection’s timing; it’s about its downstream leverage, which you’ve overlooked. Fact: Tawa’s 40-man addition (Nov 2024) preserved a multi-position asset (.317/.388/.665 in Triple-A) who’d otherwise be Rule 5-eligible now. Marte’s injury (April 5, 2025) triggers that latent value: his call-up isn’t just a fill-in—it’s a live-fire audition of a versatile piece (2B, OF, IF) Arizona can now evaluate in MLB conditions without burning a prospect year or trade capital. Your ‘no October baseball’ jab assumes Marte’s “weeks” absence (per Lovullo) tanks the season, but that’s baseless—the D’Backs were 87-75 in 2024 with Marte missing 20 games already. Tawa playing late August/September isn’t the point; it’s Arizona stress-testing his utility now to shape a 26-man postseason roster—say, as a Hampson upgrade (career .230/.275/.300) or a trade chip by July.
If you’re gonna use AI for your comments at least fact check it. Snakes won 89 games in ‘24 not 87
Rule 5 protection is not about optimizing a 40 man roster. A Rule 5 pick has to remain on a roster. His promotion is necessary if the team wants to have his rights period, not some grander ploy at Oct roster efficiency
You are inept and the use of AI is just putting lipstick on a donkey. All you are doing is painting your ignorance and lack of knowledge with a larger vocabulary. That AI is still at the mercy of the nitwit using it. And it is so unbelievably tacky that someone can’t even comment in their own words in a comment section.
@Sweeper
Since when? Disinformation.
mlb.com/standings/2024
Since the end of 2024…
It’s amazing how consistently wrong you are.
@Tigers3232
Where does it say 89?
To the right of AZ and below W. Even you should be able to figure that out….
@Tigers3232
I still can’t find it. Seems like fake news.
You are so full of sh@$. Are u that insecure that u can’t even admit such an obvious error??