The Diamondbacks placed second baseman Ketel Marte on the restricted list shortly before first pitch tonight in Boston. Infielder Jose Fernandez was recalled from Triple-A Reno. The team hasn’t publicly commented.
Nick Piecoro of The Arizona Republic reports that Marte traveled with the team to Boston but did not show up to Fenway Park. According to Steve Gilbert of MLB.com, the team had waited right up to game time in the hope that Marte would arrive. Piecoro adds that Marte was expected to serve as the designated hitter. Lars Nootbaar gets that assignment instead, albeit at the bottom of the lineup with Boston pitching a lefty opener in front of Brayan Bello.
Fernandez was with the team on the taxi squad because Nolan Arenado is day-to-day with a torso injury. Arenado isn’t playing tonight and might require a stint on the injured list. Fernandez draws right in at the hot corner as part of a makeshift infield that also features Ildemaro Vargas and Tim Tawa around star shortstop Geraldo Perdomo.
The restricted list is used when players are unavailable for non-injury reasons. There’s no minimum stint and players are not paid. It’s fairly common for a player to spend one or two days on the restricted list while attending to a personal matter (e.g. an extra day on paternity leave). Marte’s absence, however, seems to have caught the team off guard. Piecoro reports that the star second baseman is physically healthy but did not show up for the game.
It’s almost a year to the day that Piecoro and others reported that Marte’s work habits had frustrated some of his teammates. That was most directly traced to a few days he took off after the 2025 All-Star Break, which resulted in a two-day placement on the restricted list. Marte’s home in Arizona had been burglarized over the Break, but some teammates were reportedly irritated that he flew home to the Dominican Republic and missed their first series of the second half.
Manager Torey Lovullo and GM Mike Hazen generally backed him publicly. Marte apologized. He was in trade rumors over the winter but the D-Backs had a lofty ask and stopped taking calls in early January to focus on adding to the 2026 roster. He gained full no-trade rights in early April by reaching 10 years of service time.
The Diamondbacks are one game back of a Wild Card spot. Marte hasn’t been especially productive since the beginning of July and has a relatively disappointing .249/.314/.446 slash line across 519 plate appearances, though he leads the team with 21 home runs.
