464 Days and Counting
Corbin Burnes made his long-awaited 2026 debut on September 8. He threw three scoreless innings in an 11-inning win over the Royals. It capped a 464-day rehab that began with Tommy John surgery in June 2025. The road got even longer this June, when he strained his teres major during a bridge outing. Burnes signed a six-year, $210 million contract with Arizona in December 2024. He then made just 11 starts before his elbow gave out. He could have coasted through a lost season on that money. Instead, he logged a rehab start with Triple-A Reno. Beyond that, he threw a bridge camp game in Tempe, 53 pitches across three innings, just to prove he was ready. “Now we can stop talking about how long it has been,” Burnes said after the win. “Let’s just get back to playing baseball.”
Corbin Burnes. Photo Credit: Fox Sports
A Different Kind of Absence
Ketel Marte’s path back looked nothing like that. In August, Marte no-showed a game in Boston. For instance, manager Torey Lovullo said he “didn’t get much back from him” when he tried to reach out. The Diamondbacks placed Marte on the restricted list. Soon after, they moved him to the injured list for a sore left knee. Even so, fans booed him in his first at-bat when he returned. Marte offered a blunt explanation for the missed game. “It’s a moment of frustration,” he said, adding, “I failed him by not showing up.” Notably, this marked the fourth straight season Marte has missed a game without authorization. His numbers have slipped too. As a result, he is hitting .249 with 21 home runs, a steep drop from the near-MVP form that earned him back-to-back All-Star nods.
Ketel Marte. Photo Credit: Wikipedia
What Arizona Actually Needs
Major League Baseball doesn’t exist in a vacuum. The Diamondbacks are locked in a tight Wild Card race. Currently, they sit half a game ahead of San Diego heading into September. Three head-to-head games in late September could decide the final spot. Naturally, Lovullo called Burnes’ return “a manager’s dream.” Meanwhile, Marte remains in the lineup, and Arizona still needs his bat down the stretch. Still, the contrast between these two comebacks is hard to ignore. One player fought for fifteen months just to earn back his roster spot. The other, signed through 2031 on a $116.5 million extension, walked away from his team mid-race. Ultimately, he needed a knee MRI and an apology to make it right. In the end, Arizona fans noticed the difference. So did the standings.
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