Marte, Walker, and Moreno injury updates for the Diamondbacks
The Arizona Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo gave detailed injury updates for three key players who have been out with injuries most or all of August.
Ketel Marte, 10-Day IL due to left Ankle Sprain. Eligible to return August 29th
Lovullo said there is no target date for his return yet and would not commit to Marte being able to come off the IL in a minimum of 10 days.
Lovullo said that Marte has progressed from the treatment phase to a return-to-play protocol, according to his tolerance. Marte has gone from agility drills in the pool to taking swings in the batting cage, among other drills.
Marte is “fairly asymptomatic” per Lovullo. He said the big milestone will be hitting in spikes. Prior to re-aggravating the injury, Marte did all of his high-intensity training and checked every box that they could, played in a game, and had a couple of hits.
“But when he went to really full throttle a swing, checked that swing in spikes, it bit him. So we’re going to do a lot of stuff in spikes, it’s going to tell us where he’s at and what type of testing he needs to have.”
Lovullo’s message to Marte has been “Look, we need to make sure that you’re right because we need to go full throttle with this thing”.
Christina Walker, 10-Day IL with left Oblique strain since July 29th.
Walker took live BP on Tuesday. He’s slowly ramping up the intensity. There is a possibility he could be playing games in a controlled environment in a “continuation camp” at Salt River Fields. Lovullo was non-committal about Walker returning to major league games before September 1st.
Gabriel Moreno, 10-Day IL with left abductor strain (groin) strain.
Moreno hit in a cage today. They are still being very careful with what he can do with his lower half. There is no target date for his return. Lovullo has previously expressed confidence that Moreno will return before the regular season is over.
