Yankees confirmed to be a surprising wrinkle in Ketel Marte's bizarre story

Superstar Ketel Marte of the Arizona Diamondbacks is certainly going through something — and the reception he received from his hometown fans on Monday in his return definitely won't help matters (we were told only Yankee fans boo their own players?).

Regardless of the circumstances, Marte's disappearance in Boston that landed him on the restricted list, then the injured list, and now back on the roster was jarring to the rest of us, but somewhat par for the course for his franchise's leadership team.

After all, Marte gave the club way less of a "heads up" this time around, but ... this was apparently the fourth straight season where he didn't appear for a game he was supposed to be playing.

Marte was reportedly still in the Dominican Republic for a post-All-Star break game in 2025, which we learned around the time of his Fenway defection. What we did not know was that this pattern has been an annual occurrence since 2023, when he missed a game at Yankee Stadium late in the season.

It was initially reported back in '23 that Marte was sick and had to be scratched. In reality, he'd made an assumption that a game was going to be rained out, and could not be retrieved when it wasn't. Weeks later, the Diamondbacks would go on an underdog run through the National League to the World Series; Marte hit .387 with a .987 OPS in Arizona's seven-game NLCS win over the Phillies.

Yankees should be thrilled they stayed away from Ketel Marte trade talks

What a difference a season makes. There was a moment or two this offseason when it felt like the Red Sox were about to pull off a Marte trade that would leave the Yankees looking comparatively undermanned, tied to the weight of Jazz Chisholm Jr.'s walk year. Instead, Marte stayed put and ended up in a black cloud of a situation that's threatening to torpedo the D-Backs' postseason chase, and almost certainly will end his time in Arizona.

His trade value has never been lower — he's under contract through 2030 with a 2031 player option — and he will logically still be gone this offseason. It's hard to imagine a more toxic asset, and though the stories of his malfeasance have only just begun to leak out, the reality is this strange pattern dates back to a rainy day at Yankee Stadium that changed the relationship between star player and city.

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