The curious case of Ketel Marte and it continues. Back in July, the Arizona Diamondbacks’ switch-hitter revamped his entire Instagram account and wiped everything related to the team. While insiders downplayed that event as routine player behavior, the speculation never completely went away. And now, Marte has made his profile private, where there are only 4 posts and a ‘following’ of 186. But other than his no-show on Monday, another issue has come to the spotlight.

The manager felt “betrayed,” which he described as a “whole different type of pain and frustration,” after Marte didn’t show up. But this was before reports linked him to a casino.

After the Arizona Diamondbacks placed him on the 10-day IL, Marte was spotted inside a casino. Photographs of him spread on social media. Now, an MLB insider has spoken up about the importance of respecting a player’s privacy.

“What a baseball player does off the field, unless it’s a serious crime, shouldn’t be any sports journalist’s business. Personally, I’m interested in what the player does on the field,” Mike Rodriguez opined on X while defending the D’backs star.

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“If Ketel Marte went to a casino, that’s his private life. It’s not a crime, and MLB doesn’t punish any player just for going to a casino. Learn to respect the personal lives of athletes and to focus on what really matters: their performance on the field.”

Earlier this week, Ketel Marte made headlines when he did not show up at Fenway Park without any prior notice. He left his team, the Arizona Diamondbacks, in the dark as they waited 15 minutes until first pitch before announcing a replacement on Monday.

The Diamondbacks suffered an 11-1 loss without their star player against the Boston Red Sox. They also lost the following game 9-4, while Marte’s disappearance remained unexplained until Wednesday.

The D’backs CEO Derrick Hall dubbed the situation “bizarre.”

Meanwhile, the D’backs placed Marte on the restricted list.

However, Marte’s agent revealed in a statement that the player was dealing with some personal issues and knee problems. Marte had left Boston and gone back to Phoenix, as he needed an MRI to evaluate his knee.

“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,” Charisse Espinosa-Dash, Marte’s agent, shared in a statement with MLB Network insider Jon Paul Morosi on Wednesday.

Once the Diamondbacks had a clear understanding of Marte’s situation following GM Mike Hazen’s meeting, the team transferred him from the restricted list.

Marte has now landed on the 10-day IL due to left knee inflammation. He is currently under treatment at the Diamondbacks’ Spring Training facility in Salt River Fields.

Playing at Chase Field, the D’Backs won 9-0 against the Cincinnati Reds on Friday, but Marte was not there. Instead, a video of him at a casino near Salt River Fields circulated on social media. One fan account identified the location as Talking Stick Resort.

Fans roasted Marte’s move and mocked him on several levels, as one comment read, “Me after calling in sick.”

While keeping one’s personal life off the camera completely makes sense, but Arizona is missing their superstar at a bad time.

They are fighting for an NL Wild Card spot. And Marte’s ability to deliver clutch hits, manufacture runs, and orchestrate defensive gems often changes the trajectory of tight games.

The entire Marte situation has even demotivated his teammates.

“I think a lot of players are kind of frustrated with how it just happened,” reliever Kevin Ginkel noted.

Meanwhile, rookie outfielder Ryan Waldschmidt said, “I’m ready to have him back whenever. The type of player he is, the type of person he is. He’s a great guy. Obviously, [me] being a young guy, he’s always very welcoming to me… He’s asked me how I’m doing — if I need anything. He’s always there for me.”

And that moral support is right now missing, even if we slide the performance aside.

But then, on Thursday, the team held a meeting with Ketel Marte and his agent.

“I thought it was a very productive meeting… We were able to, you know, say things that we needed to say to one another, and we are going to turn the page on this as quickly as possible and get Ketel back in a healthy frame of mind from a physical standpoint, and allow him to go out and help us win baseball games here in Arizona as soon as possible,” manager Torey Lovullo is still relying on his star.

Last season, Marte disappeared similarly right after the All-Star break.

His unexplained absence during a crucial series reportedly caused clubhouse tension. However, Marte later revealed that his house was broken into and robbed.  Multiple personal items were reportedly missing, alongside jewelry worth around $400,000.

Marte had apologized for his unannounced disappearance at the time.

Coming back to Friday, while players on the injured list can join the team in the dugout, it is not mandatory. Marte was free to spend his time as he pleased after completing his sessions in Salt River Fields.

MLB does not stop a player from visiting a casino, and Marte was not doing anything illegal either. He did not violate any rules or team policies.

But the optics, especially after the recent incidents surrounding him? That’s another story altogether, and manager Torey Lovullo has shared his own two cents about the situation.

Torey Lovullo on Ketel Marte’s casino visit

“There’s right ways to handle things and wrong ways to handle things… I think the conclusion that was drawn up yesterday is that we could have been better, and Ketel could have been better, specifically, and admittedly so,” Lovullo shared just the day before Marte’s casino saga, mentioning that he wants to focus on managing baseball games more than anything else.

Ketel Marte has established himself as one of the key lineup pieces for the Arizona Diamondbacks.

He signed a six-year, $116.5 million contract extension with the Diamondbacks in April 2025. Arizona’s investment paid off, as Marte slashed .283/.376/.517 with 28 home runs, 72 RBIs, a 145 wRC+, and 4.4 WAR. However, he has developed a tendency to get involved in unwarranted drama.

The casino episode was his latest.

As the Diamondbacks shut down the Reds on Friday, manager Torey Lovullo was asked for his opinion on Marte’s casino visit. The manager said that Marte can spend his free time however he pleases, as long as he does not neglect his sessions at the Spring Training facility.

He also called Marte “a grown man.”

The reporters also asked him about the optics of the situation, but the manager declined to answer the question immediately; he asked for time to think it through, per MLB.com.

“It’s not a choice I would make,” Lovullo told MLB.com, providing his answer pregame on Saturday.

“It was not, I’m sure, a choice a lot of people in this room would make. But Ketel’s a grown man, and he can make his own decisions. And he did not break any rules. He was fully able to go there and do what he wanted to do.”

But then again, the D’backs lost 11-5 on Saturday and will play the Reds again on Sunday, trying to secure the series. If the scoreboard repeats, we can expect these questions only to grow. Will Ketel Marte answer?