The latest on Starling Marte, and a look at the Miami Marlins’ options in his absence
The Miami Marlins moved within one game of advancing to the National League Division Series on Wednesday but might have lost one of their few veterans with postseason experience in the process.
Outfielder Starling Marte, acquired at the trade deadline from the Arizona Diamondbacks, left in the ninth inning of the Marlins’ 5-1 win over the Chicago Cubs when he was hit in the left hand by by a 92.2-mph sinker from Cubs reliever Dan Winkler.
The official diagnosis was a small non-displaced fracture in the fifth metacarpal of his left hand, which is the base of the bone between the pinkie and the wrist.
The Marlins, for now, are listing Marte as day-to-day. Marte saw a hand specialist in Chicago on Thursday morning and was fitted for a protective brace. He will undergo additional treatment Thursday to address swelling. The team is not making a roster move at this point.
“We’ll see,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said about Marte’s availability for Thursday’s game and beyond. “It’s gonna be one of those things that we just kind of play day to day. We do feel like he’ll be available in some capacity today. Obviously, he’s not in the lineup. But we’re looking at it as something that there is the possibility of him getting back in fairly quickly. We’ll just kind of play that by ear and they’ll keep treating him.”
Magneuris Sierra is starting in center field for Marte in Game 2 against the Cubs on Thursday, but Mattingly said he believes Marte will be available off the bench.
Marte, the 31-year-old, one-time All-Star and two-time Gold Glove Award winner has been a steadying presence in center field and in the No. 2 spot of Miami’s lineup while helping fortify an offense that has looked sluggish at times.
He hit a go-ahead home run in his first game with the club, an eighth-inning rocket that went 438 feet to left-center field off Toronto Blue Jays reliever Shun Yamaguchi to clinch a 3-2 win on Sept. 1. He hit a bases-clearing double in the eighth inning against Phillies reliever Brandon Workman on Sept. 10 to set the stage for Jorge Alfaro’s ninth-inning walk-off single.
He also kept the Marlins’ seventh-inning rally going with a single after Corey Dickerson hit a go-ahead three-run home run. Jesus Aguilar brought Marte home with a home run of his own.
Marte has been hit three times on that hand this season, including Sunday’s regular-season finale when he left in the third inning against the Yankees with a left ear contusion, and been hit by pitches nine times combined between his time with the Marlins and Diamondbacks.
“He’s been like a target almost,” Mattingly said. “... “[Marte] has been bouncing back from everything else,” Mattingly said. “Hopefully, we get good results with everything, and we’ll see where he’s at.”
In addition to Sierra, who is in the lineup Thursday because Mattingly wanted an extra left-handed bat against the Cubs’ Yu Darvish, the Marlins also have Lewis Brinson and Monte Harrison as options to play center field should Marte’s injury linger. Jon Berti could also move to center field with Jazz Chischolm taking over at second base.
