Who is Luis Marte? A look at the Marlins’ infielder eyeing MLB debut after 10 years in minors
Luis Marte got the news of a lifetime. He was shaking with happiness and trying to hold back tears. He needed to tell someone.
He tried to call his wife first. No answer. Maybe his parents? No luck there. Finally, his sister picked up the phone. Marte relayed the message.
After 10 years playing minor-league baseball, Marte finally got the the call this week to be on an active Major League Baseball roster for the first time.
“I just started crying with her over the phone,” a smiling and jubilant Marte said Saturday before the Miami Marlins played the Boston Red Sox in the second of a three-game series at Fenway Park. “It’s kind of like ‘Well, it’s emotional but I had to do it.’ I’ve been working my entire life for this moment. I’ve been working so hard. She sees me doing all of this and she gets so emotional and cries. And then I go, ‘You know what, Luis? Nobody’s so strong. Just cry.’ And then I started crying.”
Marte wasn’t in the lineup for Friday’s 5-2, six-inning loss and isn’t starting on Saturday either but his MLB debut could come on this road trip as the Marlins continue to deal with a lack of infield depth. Shortstop Miguel Rojas (left index finger dislocation) and third baseman Brian Anderson (left shoulder subluxation) are on the injured list. Middle infielder Jazz Chisholm Jr. (right ankle sprain) is sitting out a third consecutive game as well. The Marlins’ active non-first baseman infielders are Marte, Chisolm, Isan Diaz, Jose Devers and Jon Berti.
But simply being on the Marlins’ roster, even if it’s in a bench role, is a milestone for the 27-year-old Marte — one he’s been dreaming of since he signed as an international free agent with the Texas Rangers in November 2010 and one he promised his late grandfather he would accomplish.
Marte has 825 career games of minor-league experience under his belt with three different organizations and another 83 over five seasons of winter ball in the Dominican Republic and Venezuela. He has primarily played shortstop but also has 111 career starts at third base and another 58 at second base. He has also logged 21 innings in left field in the minors and another 10 over two games at first base.
He hit .263 with two doubles, three home runs and 11 RBI in 18 games with the Triple A Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp before getting the call up. He took part in big-league spring training as well, appearing in 12 games primarily as a mid-game replacement.
Marlins manager Don Mattingly said he was “really a little better than advertised” during spring and described Marte as a “good defender with good hands. Always been a little lit with the bat but we saw him handle the bat well in spring.”
“Just seeing and hearing the excitement in his voice and the look in his eye, to know that he realized the dream, you can relate,” Mattingly said. “I remember getting called up to the big league. It was like ‘I got to the big leagues.’ Obviously you get to there and you don’t really want that to be all all there is, but it is a realization of a dream for you as you’re fighting through the minor leagues and playing in different leagues and buses in different camps. To get here is a special feeling, and you feel it through his smile and his eyes and his words. I love seeing that.”
Marte loves that he’s on the active roster, part of a dream accomplished. Now, he’s ready for the final step.
“I’m going to play in the big leagues,” Marte said. “I’m a big leaguer right now.”
This story was originally published May 29, 2021 at 1:34 PM.
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