{"id":96425,"date":"2025-02-26T14:36:21","date_gmt":"2025-02-26T19:36:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=96425"},"modified":"2025-02-26T14:36:21","modified_gmt":"2025-02-26T19:36:21","slug":"starling-marte-begin-live-bp-march","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/02\/26\/starling-marte-begin-live-bp-march\/","title":{"rendered":"Mets Eye Smooth Return for Outfielder as Grapefruit League Action Continues"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York Mets manager Carlos Mendoza announced Wednesday that outfielder Starling Marte will begin taking live batting practice in early March. However, Marte doesn\u2019t yet have a target date for his Grapefruit League debut, according to Anthony DiComo of MLB.com<\/a>. Despite being involved in trade talks over the offseason, Marte is set to remain with the Mets for a fourth season, though he may need to adjust to a more limited role than in previous years.<\/p>\n

In addition to Marte\u2019s recovery, Brandon Nimmo is expected to make his spring debut soon. Nimmo is still recovering from plantar fasciitis, an injury he managed to play through for much of the postseason.<\/p>\n

Starling Marte Spring Debut Delayed by Knee Issues<\/h2>\n

Over the past two seasons, Starling Marte has posted a .258\/.314\/.357 line (94 wRC+) over 711 plate appearances. Injuries have played a significant role in his struggles, limiting both his playing time and overall production, even when he\u2019s been healthy enough to take the field.<\/p>\n

Marte has been dealing with persistent right knee soreness since last summer<\/a>, as noted by DiComo. To help preserve his health as the season approaches, the Mets have been cautious with his workload during spring training. According to Mendoza, Marte has had \u201csome good days, some not so good\u201d while progressing through his running routine, as reported by Tim Healey of Newsday.<\/p>\n

As the Mets\u2019 incumbent right fielder, Marte has had an uneven tenure since signing a four-year, $78 million deal in 2021<\/a>. He’s still in the final year of that contract, offering flashes of his prime but struggling with injuries, averaging just 99 games per season. He hasn\u2019t played a fully healthy season since 2015.<\/p>\n

With the addition of Juan Soto<\/a>, Marte\u2019s role may shift. He\u2019s expected to be in the mix for the fourth-outfielder\/designated hitter spot. Likely to share DH duties with Jesse Winker, Marte should see plenty of time against left-handed pitchers, as he posted a solid .310\/.384\/.460 slash line against them in 2024. Against right-handed pitchers, he\u2019ll likely spend more time on the bench.<\/p>\n

Though Marte has volunteered to take reps in center field, it seems unlikely given the presence of defensive stalwarts Tyrone Taylor and Jose Siri. With his injury history, regular rest may be beneficial for Marte, who has struggled with health issues since joining the Mets.<\/p>\n

Main Photo: \u00a9 Brad Penner-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New York Mets manager Carlos Mendoza announced Wednesday that outfielder Starling Marte will begin taking live batting practice in early March. However, Marte doesn\u2019t yet have a target date for his Grapefruit League debut, according to Anthony DiComo of MLB.com. Despite being involved in trade talks over the offseason, Marte is set to remain with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3686,"featured_media":96429,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1071,35],"tags":[1515,139,5131,2133,612,28811],"class_list":["post-96425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-yankees","category-mlb","category-news","tag-brandon-nimmo","tag-jesse-winker","tag-jose-siri","tag-juan-soto","tag-starling-marte","tag-tyrone-taylor"],"modified_by":"Matt Graves","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3686"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96425"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96425\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":96430,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96425\/revisions\/96430"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}