PHOENIX -- After he had a night to sleep on it, Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo shared his thoughts Saturday afternoon about what had transpired the night before.
While the Diamondbacks were beating the Reds, 9-0, on Friday at Chase Field, injured second baseman Ketel Marte was pictured on social media at Talking Stick Casino in nearby Scottsdale.
To be clear, Marte was not doing anything illegal, nor was he in violation of any team rules or policies.
Players who are on the injured list get treatment at the team's Spring Training facility, Salt River Fields, in the early morning hours and then are not required to attend games, even home games. Most players do not come to every game while they are on the injured list.
“He’s free to do whatever he wants," Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said Friday. "That’s how I look at it. As long as he wakes up tomorrow morning and gets his work done at Salt River, which I am certain he will, that’s all that matters to me right now.”
Lovullo was then asked about the optics of Marte being at a casino after the drama of the past week. That, the manager said, he'd like to think about before answering.
Saturday before the Diamondbacks would go on to lose 11-5 to the Reds, Lovullo had an answer.
“It’s not a choice I would make,” he said. “It was not, I’m sure, a choice a lot of people in this room would make. But Ketel’s a grown man, and he can make his own decisions. And he did not break any rules. He was fully able to go there and do what he wanted to do.”
For the record, Marte was at Salt River Fields on Saturday morning to go through his rehab program.
The Diamondbacks are desperate to put the Marte drama behind them and focus on the NL Wild Card race.
The next development in the story will come when Marte addresses his teammates and explains his actions from last week. That is expected to happen in the coming days. Once he does that and addresses the media, then the team hopes it can finally move forward.