Diamondbacks Place Ketel Marte On Restricted List
Aug. 18: Marte is now flying from Boston back to Phoenix to undergo an MRI on his knee, Piecoro reports. Marte has been dealing with soreness in his left knee for a bit now. He was lifted from last Friday’s game due to the issue and was out of the D-backs’ lineup on Saturday before returning Sunday.
Aug. 17, 9:41pm: Lovullo didn’t provide many specifics in his postgame interview:
“It’s been a crazy day. All I know is that he’s dealing with a personal issue. We’re trying to figure that out. He didn’t show up today and he was put on the restricted list,” the manager said postgame (link via Alex D’Agostino of Sports Illustrated). “That’s as much as I know right now. … I knew that there was something going on today when I met with (the media), but I still believed he was going to be here. He just didn’t show up.”
“I know there was a lot of discussions about it at different points in time in the clubhouse today,” Lovullo later added. “There was a lot of curiosity. We care for Ketel.” John Gambadoro of 98.7 FM reported this evening that the D-Backs believe but aren’t positive that Marte remains at the team’s hotel in Boston.
6:08pm: 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.
Diamondbacks Designate Andrew Hoffmann For Assignment
The Diamondbacks announced that right-hander Andrew Hoffmann has been designated for assignment. That opens a 40-man move for fellow righty Justin Martínez to be reinstated from the 60-day injured list, a move that was previously reported.
Hoffmann, 26, was acquired from the Royals just over a year ago. The Snakes sent outfielder Randal Grichuk to Kansas City ahead of last year’s deadline, getting Hoffmann in return. He has mostly been kept on optional assignment. Between the Royals and Diamondbacks, he has 23 2/3 big league innings under his belt, allowing 6.85 earned runs per nine. His 20% strikeout rate, 15% walk rate and 32.4% ground ball rate are all subpar figures.
He has shown more potential in the minors but this year’s trends are not good. In 2025, his first season as a full-time reliever, he logged 42 1/3 innings in Triple-A with a 3.19 ERA. His 31.7% strikeout rate, 7.2% walk rate and 54.2% ground ball rate were all above average.
He started this year in the majors but didn’t fare well and was optioned before the end of April. He put up a 6.07 ERA, 16.9% strikeout rate and 13.8% walk rate in 13 1/3 Triple-A innings before hitting the minor league injured list with an undisclosed ailment in June. He was transferred to the 60-day IL in July. He was still on the IL at the time of this transaction. Injured players can’t be placed on outright waivers and the trade deadline has passed, so Hoffmann will have to be placed on release waivers in the coming days.
Photo courtesy of Michael McLoone, Imagn Images
D-backs To Activate Justin Martinez, Jordan Lawlar
The Diamondbacks have reinstated closer Justin Martinez and outfielder Jordan Lawlar from the injured list, per John Gambadoro of 98.7 FM Arizona Sports. First baseman Tyler Locklear and righty Gerardo Carrillo were optioned to Triple-A Reno in a pair of corresponding moves. Martinez was on the 60-day IL, so the Snakes will need to open a 40-man roster spot for him once these moves are officially announced.
Martinez, 25, has been out since undergoing Tommy John surgery in mid-June last year. That injury happened only a few months into the five-year, $18MM contract extension Martinez had signed last spring. The deal gives Arizona a pair of club options over the flamethrowing young reliever as well.
Prior to injury, Martinez had cemented himself as one of the game’s more impressive young relievers. He pitched 72 2/3 innings in 2024 and delivered a 2.48 ERA with a 29.5% strikeout rate, 11.7% walk rate and massive 58.9% ground-ball rate. The 6’3″, 225-pound righty saved eight games and picked up seven holds in ’24 before collecting five saves and four holds in just 15 1/3 innings during the 2025 season. He’s posted a 2.76 ERA, 30% strikeout rate and 58% ground-ball rate in 88 innings dating back to 2024.
It’s a notable boost for a middle-of-the-pack relief unit that currently ranks 16th in the majors with a 4.11 earned run average. D-backs relievers have the seventh-lowest strikeout rate in MLB (20.4%) but also the second-best walk rate (8.1%).
Paul Sewald, whom the D-backs recently designated for assignment, is the team leader with 24 saves but is no longer on the roster. The Jays claimed him last week. Lefty Brandyn Garcia is second on the club with four saves. No other reliever has more than one. The Diamondbacks might try to ease Martinez back into the mix, but as long as he’s healthy, he ought to be the ninth-inning favorite for the rest of the season. He certainly looked healthy on his rehab stint, firing four shutout innings and averaging an obscene 101.4 mph on his four-seamer (and 101.3 mph on his sinker).
Lawlar, 24, looked to finally be delivering on his longstanding prospect hype early in the season. The former No. 6 overall pick moved to the outfield, had a huge spring training and got out to a brilliant start after moving from the infield to the outfield this year. However, a broken wrist sidelined him for more than two months early this season, and when he returned, he suffered a hamstring strain only a week later. That injury has since cost him nearly two additional months.
When healthy this year, Lawlar hit .316/.409/.447. It’s a tiny sample, but he also raked to the tune of a .333/.448/.604 line in 59 spring plate appearances. Lawlar has consistently torched Triple-A pitching as well. He struggled in 108 scattershot MLB plate appearances from 2024-25, but it’s hard to glean much from such a small sample. Skeptics can say the same applies to this year’s early production and spring training surge, but Lawlar is a career .322/.406/.567 hitter in 96 Triple-A games whose bat has always looked likely to break out once the team settles on a defensive home for him. That’s seemingly happened in the outfield this year. Given the struggles from veteran Max Kepler and out-of-options fourth outfielder Jorge Barrosa, there should be plenty of at-bats available for Lawlar down the stretch.
Nolan Arenado Likely To Undergo MRI For Torso Injury
Nolan Arenado left today’s 5-3 Diamondbacks loss to the Braves with what the club described as left trunk discomfort. The third baseman told MLB.com’s Rick Farlow and other reporters post-game that he would “probably get an MRI,” and admitted that he was “worried” given his unfamiliarity with the nature of the soreness.
“I just felt a little bit of pain under the intercostal area, I don’t know,” Arenado said. “I haven’t felt that before. I had to get taken out of the game. I felt it before the at-bat. But it didn’t feel like pain or anything. When I swung, it wasn’t getting drastically worse, but it didn’t feel right….I just didn’t want to mess around with it.”
Arenado said he “felt a little something” while putting on his leg guard prior to his at-bat in the fourth inning. While grounding out to third base, Arenado looked uncomfortable while running down the base line, and he was replaced by Ildemaro Vargas as Arizona’s third baseman in the bottom of the fourth.
The injury scare occurred just a day after perhaps Arenado’s best game of the season, as the third baseman hit two homers in the Diamondbacks’ 10-3 over the Braves on Saturday. Arenado is now up to 20 home runs for the ninth time in his 14 MLB seasons, and he is hitting .241/.321/.443 over 458 plate appearances for the D’Backs. The 108 wRC+ is still well below Arenado’s standard from his prime years, but it represents a nice rebound from the 84 wRC+ he posted in 436 PA during an injury-marred 2025 season with the Cardinals.
With 2.2 fWAR over 118 games, Arenado has been a source of stability for the Diamondbacks in their battle for a wild card slot. A trip to the injured list for Arenado would be a setback to Arizona’s playoff hopes, and Vargas and Tim Tawa would likely be called upon to share third base duties in the interim. Jordan Lawlar is on a rehab assignment and is nearing a return from the 60-day IL, though while Lawlar has third base experience, he has been used exclusively as an outfielder in the majors and minors in 2026.
Diamondbacks Select Dennis Santana, Designate Philip Abner For Assignment
The Diamondbacks are swapping out a pair of relievers before today’s game. The team announced that right-hander Dennis Santana has been selected from Triple-A Reno. Left-hander Philip Abner has been designated for assignment in a corresponding move.
Santana joined Arizona on a minor league deal on August 6th. He had spent most of 2026 with the Pirates before they designated him for assignment in July and ultimately released him. In 41 2/3 innings for the Bucs, Santana had a 6.05 ERA and a 4.61 SIERA that hinted at some bad luck, but not enough to make him an effective pitcher under the surface. He excelled at generating ground balls from 2021-22, but he ran just a 29.6% ground ball rate this year, well below the 41.6% league average rate. Santana has also given up eight home runs after allowing only five in nearly 30 more innings in 2025.
It should be noted that Santana was an effective relief option for the Pirates from 2024-25. After struggling with the Yankees early in 2024, he came to Pittsburgh as a waiver claim that June and dominated the rest of the way. Over 44 1/3 innings in black and gold, Santana posted a stellar 2.44 ERA, along with a 22.7% K-BB rate that checked in well above league average. He followed that with a 2.18 ERA in 70 1/3 innings in 2025, maintaining an excellent 6.3% walk rate and generally keeping the ball in the park.
Santana’s 3.50 expected ERA and .218 opponents’ average on balls in play hinted at some regression in his future. Still, he’s had quite the shift from effective pitching to being downright unplayable in 2026. The Diamondbacks, who are 66-58 and currently hold an NL Wild Card spot, won’t be counting on him to return to his previous performance in the middle of a postseason race. More than likely, Santana will only be up for a short stint. Fellow righties Gerardo Carrillo, Taylor Clarke, and Juan Morillo all have ERAs under 1.00 since the All-Star break, so there’s no long-term need for Santana if they keep pitching well.
In the meantime, Abner loses his 40-man roster spot and heads to DFA limbo for the first time in his career. He had been shuffled back and forth from the minors several times this season, making eight appearances out of the Diamondbacks’ bullpen along the way. The results simply were not there. Abner posted a 6.28 ERA in 14 1/3 innings and walked more batters than he struck out. While most of that damage came in a five-run blowup against the Nationals on June 5th, the lefty still had a 6.91 xERA in 10 2/3 innings from that point forward. His 5.01 ERA with Reno this year isn’t much better.
Abner was Arizona’s sixth-round draft pick in 2023 and is still just 24 years old. He had a 3.07 ERA with strong strikeout and walk rates in the minors last year, so perhaps another team will take a chance on him as a waiver claim. If Abner clears waivers, he would need to accept an outright assignment to Reno, then have his contract selected again before he pitches in the big leagues.
Photo courtesy of Charles LeClaire, Imagn Images
Blue Jays Claim Paul Sewald, Place Jake Bloss On 60-Day IL
2:10pm: The Blue Jays formally announced the waiver claim. In order to create a 40-man roster spot, they recalled injured righty Jake Bloss from Triple-A and placed him on the major league 60-day injured list. Bloss underwent UCL surgery last May. He was in the minor leagues at the time and has thus been on the minor league injured list since.
Bloss went through a low-level rehab assignment in May and June before being reinstated to the Triple-A rotation. He started five games for the Jays’ top affiliate in Buffalo and was rocked for 19 runs in 19 2/3 innings before going back on the minor league injured list on July 17. It’s not clear whether there’s a new injury or he’s just dealing with lingering fatigue from the rehab process, but the move ends his season. He’ll collect 47 days of major league service and salary (about $196K) the rest of the way.
Bloss entered the season with 39 days of major league service. He’ll still be controllable for a full six seasons after this one. The former No. 99 overall pick (2023) and top prospect is already in his final of three minor league option seasons, but the Jays will likely be granted a fourth option year over him, as is typically the case for players who exhaust all of their minor league options before completing five professional seasons.
12:46pm: The Blue Jays have claimed veteran reliever Paul Sewald off waivers from the Diamondbacks, reports Steve Gilbert of MLB.com. Arizona had designated Sewald for assignment earlier in the week.
Sewald spent a season and a half with the D-backs in 2023-24 before a 2025 trip to the AL Central (Guardians, Tigers). He returned to Arizona on a one-year, $1.5MM deal after an injury-plagued ’25 campaign and started the year brilliantly. Through mid-June, he picked up 18 saves with a 3.18 ERA, 29.9% strikeout rate and 7.5% walk rate. By all accounts, the reunion looked to be a roaring success.
Under the hood, there were some areas for concern. Sewald was giving up significant amounts of hard contact and only kept 13.8% of his batted balls on the ground. A microscopic .131 average on balls in play kept the bases clean and helped to mitigate the damage of the home runs he allowed, but when that good fortune on batted balls dried up, the home runs became far more problematic. Sewald served up 17 earned runs — on the strength of seven homers — over his final 10 2/3 innings with the Snakes before being designated for assignment.
Sewald was outstanding in Seattle and Arizona from 2021-23. He pitched a combined 189 1/3 innings with a 2.89 ERA, 65 saves, 24 holds and plus strikeout and walk rates in that time. Injuries hobbled him in 2024-25, ballooning his ERA to 4.40 in a combined 59 1/3 innings. This year’s season has been a Jekyll & Hyde affair.
The Jays will assume the remainder of Sewald’s modest $1.5MM salary — about $377K as of this writing. They’ll plug him into a banged-up pitching staff that currently has nine pitchers on the injured list. Sewald won’t be asked to close down games with his new club, as that’s bullpen ace Louis Varland‘s territory. He’ll join veteran Tyler Rogers in a setup group that’s also gotten help from Braydon Fisher and Mason Fluharty since the deadline trade sending Jeff Hoffman to Minnesota.
D-Backs To Use Zack Littell In Relief
Zack Littell was activated by the Diamondbacks this afternoon after signing a major league contract over the weekend. The veteran righty told the Arizona beat the team informed him he’ll be working out of the bullpen, at least to begin his tenure (video provided by Alex Weiner of Arizona Sports).
The Snakes activated Michael Soroka from a six-week injured list stint due to a left glute strain. He’s going tonight against the Rockies, who are countering with rookie righty Gabriel Hughes. The Snakes aren’t making any other changes to the starting staff. Eduardo Rodriguez, Merrill Kelly, Brandon Pfaadt and rookie Mitch Bratt will continue as starters. Bratt and Kelly are lined up for the final two games of the Colorado series.
Littell has been a starter for the last three and a half seasons. The Rays built him up midway through the ’23 campaign after he’d pitched in relief to that point as a big leaguer. Littell found some success as a back-end starter with Tampa Bay and Cincinnati. He never missed many bats but was among the game’s stingiest pitchers at avoiding walks.
The production fell off after Littell joined the Nats on a $7MM free agent deal last offseason. Washington essentially used him as a starter all year, though they quickly took to pitching an opener in front of Littell and Miles Mikolas in a lot of their respective turns. Littell took the ball 23 times and posted an ERA just under 5.00 across 112 1/3 innings. He struck out a career-low 14.6% of opposing hitters and allowed 25 home runs, fifth most in the majors.
There’s not much downside for the Snakes in stashing Littell in a low-leverage relief role. He’s playing on a league minimum salary, with Washington paying the rest after him releasing him last week. The D-Backs mostly have journeymen types in middle relief and didn’t make any pitching acquisitions before the trade deadline. Littell figures to stay stretched out in a multi-inning role in case any injuries necessitate using him as a starter.
Diamondbacks Designate Paul Sewald For Assignment
4:20pm: The Snakes have now made it official. They designated Sewald for assignment and optioned righty Kade Strowd. Those moves open spots for righty Michael Soroka to be reinstated from the injured list and righty Zack Littell to be added to the active roster. It was reported yesterday that Arizona would be signing Littell.
1:31pm: The Diamondbacks will designate right-hander Paul Sewald for assignment, reports John Gambadoro of 98.7 FM Arizona Sports. Sewald returned to the Snakes on a one-year deal in free agency this past offseason and has spent the bulk of the season as Arizona’s closer. He started strong but hit a wall in late June and hasn’t been able to recover.
For the season’s first three months or so, Sewald was genuinely excellent. He piled up 18 saves by June 19 and did so while holding opponents to just 10 earned runs on 13 hits and eight walks with 32 punchouts in 28 1/3 innings. The resulting 3.18 ERA, 29.9% strikeout rate and 7.5% walk rate all stood as strong marks.
There were, however, some red flags. Sewald gave up hard contact at worse-than-average levels. That’s not a glaring problem in and of itself, but the veteran righty posted only a 13.8% ground-ball rate in that run of three months. Just over 10% of that mountain of fly-balls he surrendered turned into home runs. That’s a slightly better than average percentage, but Sewald was keeping the bases empty in part due to a tiny .131 average on balls in play that no one can sustain.
As more hitters began to reach base, Sewald’s home run woes were exacerbated. He was rocked for seven homers in his final 10 2/3 innings, which played a major role in 17 runs crossing the plate during that time. Sewald has given up runs in seven of his past 14 outings — two or more runs in five of them. He has a 14.34 ERA dating back to June 23 and now sits with an ugly 6.23 mark on the season as he heads to DFA limbo.
Sewald’s one-year deal to return to the D-backs contained only a $1.5MM base. MLBTR contributor Ethan Hullihen notes that he’s already picked up an additional $350K worth of incentives on the season by virtue of bonuses unlocked for his 25th, 35th and 45th appearances as well as 20, 25 and 35 games finished. Arizona’s tab for their four-month (and change) reunion with Sewald will close at $1.85MM.
Since the trade deadline has come and gone, the only move the D-backs can make with Sewald is to place him on waivers. He’s very likely to clear release waivers and become a free agent. A contending club could then add him on a minor league deal and stash him as a depth option in Triple-A while they try to get him back on track.
Minor Transactions: Amaya, Conley, Arroyo, Hartwig
Catching up on a few minor moves from around baseball in the last few days, all via MLB.com’s transactions log…
- The Diamondbacks released infielder Jacob Amaya from his minor league deal. Amaya hit .253/.361/.420 over 293 plate appearances for Triple-A Reno, but he hasn’t played in over a month due to injury that has seen Amaya moved from the seven-day to the 60-day injured list. Over 64 games and 154 PA with the Marlins, Astros, and White Sox from 2023-25, Amaya has a career slash line over .147/.183/.161 as a big leaguer.
- The Mets outrighted right-hander Bryce Conley to Triple-A Syracuse and released infielder Christian Arroyo. Conley had his contract selected to New York’s active roster last Sunday but was designated for assignment two days later without any in-game action, so the 31-year-old righty is still waiting to make his official Major League debut. Arroyo first signed a minor league deal with the Mets last winter and was then released from that contract at the start of June before quickly re-signing. Injuries have also limited Arroyo’s season, though he has a solid .279/.331/.435 slash line over 261 PA for Syracuse. A former top-100 prospect and a regular in Boston’s infield, Arroyo is a veteran of seven MLB seasons, hitting .252/.299/.394 over 992 PA from 2017-23.
- The Twins released right-hander Grant Hartwig. After signing a minors deal with Minnesota last winter, Hartwig posted a 6.30 ERA over 40 relief innings at the Triple-A level, without any calls to the Show. Hartwig’s big league resume therefore remains the 42 innings of 5.14 ball he pitched for the Mets during the 2023-24 seasons. The righty’s 2025 campaign was spent with the Mets’ Triple-A affiliate and with the Hanshin Tigers of Nippon Professional Baseball.
Diamondbacks To Sign Zack Littell
The Diamondbacks have agreed to a deal with right-hander Zack Littell, Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic reports. The signing comes two days after Littell (a CAA Sports client) was released from his one-year, $7MM contract with the Nationals.
That $7MM guarantee comes in the form of a $3MM base salary, and a $4MM buyout of a $12MM mutual option for the 2027 season. Washington remains responsible for almost all of Littell’s remaining owed salary, minus the prorated MLB minimum salary that will be covered by the D’Backs.
The 30-year-old Littell has a 4.97 ERA, 7.3% walk rate, and 14.6% strikeout rate over 112 1/3 innings this season, working as both a starter and as a bulk pitcher behind an opener. Besides the solid walk rate, there’s not a lot to like about Littell’s bottom-line numbers or Statcast metrics, though his ERA was a little inflated by a trio of particularly rough starts in April.
Littell brought a career 3.88 ERA into the 2026 season, and he showed good durability in tossing 186 2/3 innings for the Rays and Reds just a year ago. His lack of strikeouts and some increased propensity for allowing home runs has lowered his value around the league, however, turning Littell into more of a back-of-the-rotation type.
An innings-eater might be just what the Diamondbacks need to help cover some starts until some of their injured starters return to action. Michael Soroka is expected to be activated from the 15-day IL tomorrow, so Littell can slot in behind Eduardo Rodriguez, Merrill Kelly, Brandon Pfaadt, and Soroka, with rookie Mitch Bratt probably heading to the bullpen. The D’Backs could also consider using Bratt and Littell in a piggyback situation, similar to how the Nats used openers to shield Littell from starting the game against tough left-handed batters.
As Piecoro notes, the Diamondbacks did have their eyes on a more prominent add at the deadline, but the Mets pulled out of a proposed deal that would’ve sent Clay Holmes to Arizona. Left without any pitching upgrades pre-deadline, the D’Backs have now signed Littell and (on a minors deal) Dennis Santana to add some more depth for the playoff push.
