When he slammed his bat down after a called third strike on Friday night, earning himself an ejection by the home-plate umpire, the Diamondbacks’ Ketel Marte looked like a player mired in a weeks-long slump, not someone who had only a couple of games under his belt in a new season.
Less than a week ago, Marte, the Diamondbacks’ starting second baseman, was given a five-year, $24 million contract extension. For some players, such a development is reason to exhale. For others, it ratchets up the pressure to show they’re worthy of the money. The ejection begged the question of whether Marte is among the former or the latter.