Diamondbacks’ Torey Lovullo provides updates on Christian Walker, Ketel Marte

Arizona Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo feels that progression could be quick for stars Christian Walker and Ketel Marte once fully cleared.

The manager told Arizona Sports’ Burns & Gambo on Friday the two veterans have had so many at-bats this year that he’s hopeful they’ll be back “sooner rather than later.”

Walker landed on the injured list on July 30 with a left oblique strain and Marte on Monday with a sprained ankle.

“There’s a target date that we’re hopeful they’ll be available to us,” Lovullo said. “Christian Walker continues to progress. He did some full velocity, full intensity hitting yesterday. He’ll do that again today. Unfortunately with Marte, we’re trying to get him asymptomatic. Once he’s asymptomatic, we’ll begin his progression.

“But in both cases, I feel like, because they have so many at-bats under their belt, that progression could be quick.”

Neither player has returned to full baseball activity, although Lovullo said he felt good about a return over Arizona’s 13 games in 13 days starting on Tuesday.

The Diamondbacks will host the New York Mets for three games, the Los Angeles Dodgers for four and then play another three at the San Francisco Giants before their next off day.

Lovullo noted both players would certainly be back this season.

Is Justin Martinez the closer going forward?

Justin Martinez has been the go-to for save situations over the past couple of weeks, as he has earned Arizona’s last five saves. Martinez has a 1.89 ERA this season and has allowed one earned run in 5.2 innings during saves.

“On the short end, we’re very pleased with and happy with how things have gone. On the larger scale, we’ve got to make sure that all the bullpen pieces are functioning and doing it at the highest level,” Lovullo said.

“To me, that means Paul Sewald. I want to get Paul Sewald back into that role, but I want to allow him to continue to grow and learn and get a feel for where he’s at, and it’s trending in a very positive direction. But whoever it is and wherever it is, I feel very good about our pieces. There’s a strategy to how to and when to and where to we’re throwing these guys. Justin responded really well. He’s saving baseball games right now, and that’s the most important thing.”

Sewald has allowed three earned runs in eight innings since moving out of the closer role. On Saturday, he gave up a ninth-inning run during a 4-1 win at Fenway Park, and Arizona got Martinez up in the bullpen to warm up just in case, for what that says about current roles even without labels.

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