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SCOTTSDALE, AZ (Gambling911.com) - Arizona Diamondbacks second baseman Ketel Marte was making headlines Saturday for all the wrong reasons.
Photos emerged on social media showing Marte at the Talking Stick Resort Casino in Scottsdale playing roulette during the team's home game against the Reds (ARI 9, CIN 0). Marte is currently on the injured list with a knee issue.
"He's free to do whatever he wants," manager Torey Lovullo said following Friday's game (via the Arizona Republic). "That's how I look at it. As long as he wakes up tomorrow morning and posts, and gets his work done at Salt River, which I am certain he will, that's all that matters to me right now."
After no-showing on Monday, he did not explain his absence to the team until meeting with club officials on Thursday. The Diamondbacks moved him from the restricted list to the injured list. Marte left the team in Boston to undergo testing on his knee.
While it's true players on the injured list are generally not required to attend games, trekking around a casino is probably not the best advise for someone with a knee injury either.
Marte was rehabbing his knee injury earlier in the day at the club's Salt River Fields spring training complex in Arizona.
Lovullo did say early Friday that he felt "betrayed" by the entire ordeal with Marte, in particular the lack of communication.
"I was hurting. I was clearly hurting," Lovullo said prior to Friday's game (via The Athletic). "Once I saw what was unfolding, I became extremely frustrated, and I felt betrayed. And that's a whole different type of pain and frustration. But I'm through that. I'm getting through that."
Reliever Kevin Ginkel expressed frustration with Marte, saying (via The Athletic): "For us to go where we want to go, we've got to have him here. It's disappointing how the things that happened happened. There's really no explanation for it."
- Dan Shapiro, Gambling911.com
