Diamondbacks’ Ketel Marte, Christian Walker injury updates; no return dates yet

PHOENIX — Arizona Diamondbacks standouts Ketel Marte, Christian Walker and Gabriel Moreno all took swings on Tuesday while making their respective strides on the injured list.

Marte (left ankle sprain) posted videos of himself taking cuts in the batting cage on his Instagram story ahead of Tuesday’s game against the New York Mets.

He is eligible to return from the 10-day IL this week, but manager Torey Lovullo did not have a specific target date.

“He’s out of the treatment phase and he’s into a little bit of a return to play program, handling and tolerating what he can,” Lovullo said. “I know he wants to be back as bad as anybody. He wants to spend as little time on the IL as possible, but … I’m just gonna tell him, ‘Look, we need to make sure that you’re right, because we need to go full throttle with this thing.’

“There’s no target date on that yet.”

Lovullo said Marte is “fairly asymptomatic,” as there are movements he has not yet tested. Hitting with cleats will be an important box to check, as he collapsed in the batter’s box after getting cleared twice before going on the IL.

“We’re going to do a lot of stuff in spikes that’s going to be able to tell us where he’s at and what type of testing he needs to have,” Lovullo said.

Christian Walker tracking for game action this weekend

Walker (strained left oblique) took batting practice on Tuesday as he ramps up the intensity. Should he check the necessary boxes this week, he could see game action this weekend in “continuation camp” for a controlled environment. It sounds like he will not need a rehab assignment at an affiliate, which should speed up his return process.

Like with Marte, Lovullo did not give a specific date for Walker, saying it could be after Saturday, when rosters expand for September.

Moreno (strained left adductor) hit in the cage, but the club wants to be careful with his lower half.

Diamondbacks overcoming injuries

Since Walker went down on July 29, the D-backs entered Tuesday with a 19-5 record. Moreno injured his adductor on Aug. 5, and since then Arizona is 14-4.

Marte first injured his ankle on Aug. 10 and went on the IL Aug. 19. Since the initial injury, the D-backs are 10-3, and they have a 6-0 record since Marte was placed on the IL.

Losing three of a team’s more productive at-bats and top defenders — including an MVP candidate — would put any club in a tough position. The D-backs have not only survived but kept rolling despite the adversity.

“It’s unfortunate, but it’s also encouraging because we’re still playing really good baseball,” infielder Kevin Newman said in a pregame media scrum. “Someone is stepping up, and we’re finding ways to win without a couple big guys.”

“We’re fighting through some tough circumstances with arguably our three best players down,” Lovullo said. “That comes on the heels of us losing a lot of our starting rotation. But I think everybody knows there is a task each and every day, and they know what that job is and they get what they need to do inside of that day to make the engine run. That, for me, is really inspiring.”

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