Diamondbacks acquire outfielder Starling Marte from the Pirates

The Arizona Diamondbacks improved their outfield on Tuesday with the acquisition of center fielder Starling Marte of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Marte was traded from the Pittsburgh Pirates to Arizona for prospects Brennan Malone and Liover Peguero. Malone is a 19 year-old right handed pitcher from Matthews, North Carolina and Peguero is a 19 year old shortstop from Higuey, Dominican Republic.

Marte spent the last eight seasons with the Pirates and was an all-star in 2016. Last season for the Bucs, he had 539 at bats and batted .295 with 23 home runs and 82 runs batted in. During 132 games and 586 plate appearances in 2019, Marte scored 97 runs, had 31 doubles, six triples, 25 stolen bases, 25 walks, 271 total bases, two sacrifice bunts and four sacrifice flies. He also had an on base percentage of .342 and a slugging percentage of .503. Marte had career highs in runs scored, home runs, runs batted in, slugging percentage and total bases.

Known for his outstanding defense, Marte has won the National League golden glove award twice in the outfield. The first time was in 2015 and the second time was in 2016. In that span he only had six errors in 274 regular season games.

During Marte’s all-star season of 2016, he batted a career high .311 with nine home runs and 46 runs batted in. That season he also had career highs in stolen bases (47), doubles (34), on base percentage (.362).

The fact that Marte is bringing a little bit more power to his game will be important to Arizona. However one area where Marte needs to do better is running the base paths. Even though he has 239 stolen bases in his career, he has been caught stealing 77 times. Twice in his career Marte has led Major League Baseball in caught stealing. He was caught stealing 15 bases in 2013 and 14 bases in 2018.

It should be noted that Starling Marte is not related to Diamondbacks second baseman Ketel Marte even though both players are from the Dominican Republic. Starling is 31 years old, and five years older than the 26 year-0ld Ketel, who is from Nizao, Dominican Republic.