Ketel was the One to lead Arizona forward

Marte, the MVP of the National League Championship Series, carries a record 18-game playoff hitting streak into Game 3 Monday night.

Ketel Marte

Mike Hazen drew the line, right in front of Ketel Marte.

Hazen is the general manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks. These days, maybe he should enlarge that description on his business card, in a gaudier font. His team has overcome a negative run differential, and lots of other negatives, to stand 1-1 with the Texas Rangers in the World Series, with the next three games at home, in front of fans who had to install Waze to remember how to get to the downtown ballpark again, the same park about which the franchise poohbahs frequently complain.

Hazen had to make a decision on Marte, a player laden with potential and versatility. The Diamondbacks had already dealt Paul Goldschmidt to St. Louis because they couldn’t, or wouldn’t, meet his pay stipulations. They traded Zack Greinke to Houston, for four suspects, while he was 10-4 at the 2019 trade deadline.

In 2021 the Diamondbacks lost 111 games. They could have been Pittsburgh or Miami, notorious as a stage for players to present auditions to richer clubs. Hazen did not come to Arizona to make it Pittsburgh or Miami. He first showed that when the Diamondbacks got into the 2017 playoffs. He re-established it when he signed Marte, during 2022 spring training, to a five-year deal worth $76 million.

“We are extremely fortunate to have a superstar who does what Ketel does,” Hazen said.

“Superstar” seemed a little strong at the time. But now we’re understanding how why Hazen felt fortunate. Marte has an 18-game hitting streak in postseason games, stretching back into 2017, which was Arizona’s last previous playoff appearance. That’s against the best pitchers underneath the hottest light. It also is a major league record.

Marte also was the MVP of the National League Championship Series. He is hitting .333 with a .910 OPS in the postseason, and he has six doubles and 11 RBI. He was 8 for 19 in the NLCS games that the Diamondbacks won.

He has always been obscured by something, whether it’s the N.L. West standings or a gathering of cacti or maybe the fact that he wasn’t always even the best Marte on the roster. Starling Marte had better numbers at one point. But Starling is with the Mets, where the money is, and now he and those North Americans who are interested are watching Marte make the Diamondbacks look not only baseball-smart but financially savvy.

“We need to anchor around some guys,” Hazen said when Marte signed. “I have made some trades where we have moved some of our better players. Those are not things that I look back and celebrate in a lot of ways. We need to make some commitments here. We need players that the fans can get behind and celebrate as we begin to win. Somebody said to me in the offseason, talking through our roster, it stuck with me that we don’t need fewer Ketel Martes, we need more.”

There’s a sentimental element here. When Hazen came from the Red Sox front office to follow Dave Stewart in the Diamondbacks’ big chair, the first trade he made involved Marte, then a minor league shortstop with the Mariners. Marte was window dressing in the bigger deal, which involved righthander Taijuan Walker, and sent shortstop Jean Segura, outfielder Mitch Haniger and lefty Zac Curtis.

That was in November of 2016. Two years ago Haniger and Segura wore Seattle uniforms into the All-Star Game. Marte had his moments, like in 2019, when he slammed 32 homers and had a .981 OPS, glittery enough to finish fourth in the MVP race. He also led the league in triples, with 12, the year before. But this spring, Hazen was pointedly saying that Marte needed to be more of a straight-line commodity, to “carry the team” through rough patches.

Marte had hit .240 with a .727 OPS in 2022. He was still capable of playing shortstop, second base and centerfield, which endeared him to manager Torey Lovullo. He responded with 25 homers 82 RBI and an .844 OPS, and career highs in games and plate appearances, and a significant uptick in walks, to 71.

The switch-hitter also sharpened up his game from the left side, smashing 20 of his home runs against righty pitchers. At one point Marte was so worried about his lefthanded-hitting performance that he went all righty in a winter league, but he realized that the breaking stuff from righthanded pitchers was too hard to discern. And Marte made only eight errors in 145 games at second base.

Game 3 of the World Series features an odd pitching matchup between Max Scherzer, the 39-year-old future Hall of Famer, and Brandon Pfaadt, the 25-year-old rookie from Louisville who has harnessed his stuff just in time for the money games. The way they’ve pitched so far, you’d almost expect a better game from Pfaadt. The Diamondbacks drafted Scherzer with the 11th overall pick in 2006 but traded him after the 2009 season, a labyrinthine four-way deal that brought pitchers Edwin Jackson and Ian Kennedy to the desert. So Scherzer has gotten 205 of his 214 wins in uniforms that aren’t Arizona’s.

Arizona’s 9-1 victory in Game 2 was a palate-cleanser for both bullpens, especially with Sunday’s day off. Texas was coming off an epic Game 1 victory, with Corey Seager’s 2-run homer that sent it into extra innings and enabled Adolis Garcia to win it with his sixth playoff homer. The Rangers are unbeaten on the road in the playoffs and have no reason for apprehension, but the Phillies might tell them that if they have a chance to cut the head off the snake, do so immediately. Arizona beat Milwaukee twice in come-from-behind fashion and then braved the Philadelphia wall of noise to win Games 6 and 7 last week.

Marte is not the only Arizona player to make Hazen look prophetic. The GM knew he wasn’t trading Goldschmidt to the Cardinals from a position of strength, so he got whatever he could. One of the chips was righthander Luke Weaver. Hazen eventually traded Weaver to Kansas City and got third baseman Emmanuel Rivera, who has split time with Evan Longoria and figures to own the position next year.

And, of course, Hazen and his staff ignored the growth chart and picked Corbin Carroll with the 16th pick in the 2019 draft. The team with the previous pick was the Almost In Los Angeles Angels, who drafted shortstop Will Wilson from North Carolina State. At the end of that season the Angels needed extra salary room to go big in the free agent market, and the best way to do that was to divest themselves of infielder Zack Cozart. So the Giants agreed to take him as long as they included Wilson. Relieved, the Angels spent $245 million on Anthony “Aflac” Rendon, who has rewarded them with 148 games in the past three seasons.

Hazen’s overall work has made Princeton proud but impartial. The Rangers’ general manager is Chris Young, who was a pitcher and a basketball post man at Princeton. It’s hard to judge a school by one or two men — i.e., Ted Cruz spent time at Princeton — but maybe there really are occasions in decision-making when the brightest really are the best.