Diamondbacks’ Ketel Marte called a ‘pleasant surprise’ by MLB.com
Aug 17, 2019, 9:36 AM
There’s no question that baseball is a game filled with surprises, even the players themselves can present surprises from year to year whether they’re rookies or established veterans.
One player who has been a big surprise this season is D-backs All-Star second baseman Ketel Marte.
Richard Justice of MLB.com named each team’s pleasant surprise of the year and noted that Marte has the fourth-high WAR (5.9) among all MLB position players. As of Saturday, only Mike Trout (8.1), Cody Bellinger (8.0) and Christian Yelich (5.7) are ahead of him in that category.
Marte’s WAR was only at 4.6 in his first 402 career games.
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The D-backs’ Marte has also set a career high in hits (152), doubles (27), home runs (24), RBIs (71) and batting average (.320).
This is a big step up for a player who recorded just 135 hits and 14 home runs with a .260 a season ago.
Marte has played a crucial role in the D-backs push for a Wild Card spot and can continue to do so as the team finishes a four-game series against the San Francisco Giants on Sunday, and begins a three-game series at home against the Colorado Rockies on Monday.
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