D-backs plan to use Ketel Marte, others in CF after trading Starling Marte

The Arizona Diamondbacks traded away four players on Monday before the MLB trade deadline passed, and three of them had long tenures in the organization.

The fourth, though, who only played 33 games as a D-back, is the most impactful loss.

Starling Marte was acquired last offseason from the Pittsburgh Pirates, and after hitting .311 with an OPS of .827 in those 33 games, was dealt to the Miami Marlins.

Not only do the D-backs have to figure out how to replace their second-best hitter, but there is also a question of what they do with the position both in the short term and the long term.

For now, that will, yes, likely include second baseman Ketel Marte making some appearances again in center.

“Center field moving forward, yeah, I think Ketel will probably take some time out there,” general manager Mike Hazen said on Monday. “We haven’t talked to him about that but there’s probably some formations where that will be the case.”

Hazen said there will be a “cycle” to center, which he hopes includes highly-touted prospect Daulton Varsho. He also expects depth outfielder Tim Locastro to factor in as well.

Locastro has a handful of experience there as a fourth outfielder, but the rookie Varsho has spent time in the corner spots of the outfield and catcher, not center. Varsho’s first time playing center in the minors, in fact, wasn’t until late in the 2019 season.

That’s another way of saying that neither figures to be penned in as both the short-term and long-term option at the position. Jon Jay made the other two starts in center when Starling Marte was not there.

Ketel Marte made the transition into center in 2019, starting 89 of his 139 games there after having no prior experience at the position.

He adapted quickly and well, proving to be fully capable of the daunting task, but with the arrival of Starling, Ketel was no longer needed there and moved back to his natural spot at second base.

This season, Ketel Marte has started 33 of his 34 games at second base, with the other coming at shortstop.

Starling Marte figured to be the guy in center through the 2021 season, as the D-backs gave up a decent load of prospects for him, and Marte had a $12.5 million team option Arizona could take on.

With the D-backs’ struggles in 2020, though, they decided to move another direction.

A report from the New York Post’s Joel Sherman indicated the D-backs didn’t intend to take on Marte’s 2021 option, which Hazen denied.

“The option being declined thing definitely had an interesting impact today,” Hazen said. “We got about four phone calls immediately thereafter that becoming made public, which wasn’t true, by the way. We never spoke of that once with anybody because that wasn’t the plan.

“That was an interesting little sidebar to the day. Thankfully, we kind of already had our deal pretty much wrapped up.”

The D-backs have a good farm system that features outfielders at the top, with Kristian Robinson, Alek Thomas and Corbin Carroll ranked as three of the team’s top five prospects by MLB Pipeline.

All three, however, feature an “ETA” of either 2022 or 2023 to the majors and haven’t turned 21 years old yet, so there will be a wait.

That’s something Hazen doesn’t want the D-backs to feel like they need to rely on.

“It’s not just about looking forward to prospects,” he said. “This isn’t about waiting for that next wave that everybody always likes to talk about. We need to blend all these things together, so when that group gets here, they are getting in the conga line of really good baseball players that are leading to wins for the Diamondbacks.”

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