PHOENIX -- Diamondbacks second baseman Ketel Marte and his agent met with Arizona general manager Mike Hazen and manager Torey Lovullo for a few hours on Thursday afternoon at Salt River Fields to discuss the events of the past week, which included Marte not showing up at Fenway Park on Monday night and being placed on the restricted list.
In addition, Marte had an MRI taken of his left knee that showed some inflammation, and Hazen said the second baseman would be placed on the 10-day injured list. Because he was on the restricted list, Marte’s IL stint can't be backdated to when he last played. Instead, he will need to miss 10 days beginning Thursday.
Hazen also said that Marte received an injection in the knee that should deal with the inflammation. The team hopes it will allow him to return to action when his time on the IL stint is done or shortly thereafter.
"I'm not gonna get into specifics," Hazen said. "I feel like the conversation and meeting was productive. We discussed the last week. That, obviously, I'm not going to get into. He'll talk to his teammates at some point and we'll go from there."
Marte had been penciled into the lineup as the designated hitter on Monday night in Boston, and the team held the lineup back until around 20 minutes before game time in the hopes that Marte would show up.
"It's been a crazy day," Lovullo said after the Diamondbacks’ 11-1 loss that night. "All I know is that he's dealing with a personal issue. We're trying to figure that out, and he didn't show up today and he was put on the restricted list. That's as much as I know right now. I just was doing my best to reach out to him, and there was very little coming back."
For the past few days, a number of Marte's teammates said they had reached out to him via text messages but got little or no response.
Marte's agent, Charisse Espinosa-Dash, shared the following statement with MLB Network insider Jon Paul Morosi on Wednesday: “He is currently managing a personal matter and will be undergoing an MRI on his knee tomorrow. Ketel appreciates the unwavering support from fans, teammates, the Diamondbacks organization, and Torey Lovullo during this time. He remains optimistic about his recovery and looks forward to returning to the field to contribute to the team as soon as possible.”
Marte’s status moving forward will be a primary storyline as the Diamondbacks (67-61) remain in the NL Wild Card chase. The 32-year-old has posted a .760 OPS with 21 home runs this season.