Exactly one year ago Wednesday, as the Pirates prepared for a three-game series in St. Louis, Major League Baseball announced Pittsburgh would be without Starling Marte for 80 games. The two-time Gold Glove winner was suspended because he tested positive for Nandrolone, an anabolic steroid.
Marte called his actions “careless” upon returning in July, and spoke repeatedly of how he learned to think twice before trusting anyone again. He saw 2018 as an opportunity to return to being an All-Star-caliber player, but his mission went well beyond a desire to prove people wrong.
Marte, with the help of Pirates hitting coach Jeff Branson, renewed his focus on the art of hitting, and the early results resemble the player he was in 2016, moreso than the one who struggled upon returning from his suspension in 2017.
"This is everything I wanted to do this year," Marte told DKPittsburghSports.com. "I wanted to get better. I wanted to focus and help my team. I wanted to prove it to myself, and it’s going good. I still bring the same energy. I'm happy."
Marte, now 29, is batting .308/.400/.569 in 17 games with two doubles, a league-leading three triples, a team-high 15 runs, three home runs and seven RBIs. He has five stolen bases after having only 21 in 77 games last season.
His weighted runs created plus, a statistic created by FanGraphs that measures the value of each hit, rather than treating all hits or times on base equally, is 70 percent better than the league average. He’s been worth 6.4 wins above replacement on offense and his .263 isolated power would be a career-high.
He had a career-high five hits — including a solo home run — in the Pirates’ 7-3 win over the Marlins Sunday and has eight hits in his last 12 at-bats. But Marte’s growth is most evident in his improved plate discipline. He’s walked 10 times after doing so only 20 times last season and 23 times in 129 games during 2016.
He’s swinging at only 19.9 percent of pitches out of the zone — nearly 17 percent less than 2017 — and pitchers have thrown a first-pitch strike to him nearly 13 percent less often.
“As we talked through spring training, this was a show-up year for him in his mind,” Clint Hurdle said. “It’s a fresh start. He’s worked hard, he’s prepared. His focus has been good. There’s maturity in his step and usually you get some of that by learning some valuable and hard lessons.”
Last season, Marte saw a first-pitch strike 67 percent of the time and only 26.2 percent of the contact he made was classified as hard, according to FanGraphs. He batted .275./.333/.379 with a below-average OPS+. His 1.4 fWAR was the lowest in his career since he played only 47 games as a rookie in 2012.
But he did begin to show signs of returning to form. Marte batted .322 in the final month of the season, capped by a 12-game hitting streak, which matched a career high. He wasn't satisfied, though. So, with only 339 plate appearances in 2017, Marte chose to play in the Dominican Winter League, representing his hometown team, Leones del Escogido.
He used his 124 plate appearances there with a singular focus: to get a better read on pitchers.
Since making his major league debut in 2012, a few of the Pirates' veterans — he didn’t want to say specific names as to not leave anyone out — assured him plate discipline would come with experience. Rather than relying on instincts, Marte is now keeping an eye on the pitcher’s hand on the mound to try to see what is coming. It isn’t a foolproof strategy; however, he has seen results because of the time he’s dedicated to studying each pitcher's scouting report.
“Right now I’m focusing on the pitcher’s hand,” he explained. “The sooner I can see the hand before he throws it. Sometimes I know what’s coming. Sometimes i don’t because it’s too hard, but I have a couple seconds. I’ve been swinging good and that definitely helps.”
That work has not gone unnoticed by Hurdle or Branson, who constructed an individualized plan for Marte to improve.
“He’s worked hard also about getting really good reads out of the pitcher’s hand and not always being in the mindset to swing and then maybe stop swinging, but to get a good read and then swing,” Hurdle said.
That, Marte said, began with focus. He admits his focus has escaped him in the past. Previously, he'd allow a bad game at the plate to affect him well beyond the recording of the final out. Marte has learned the importance of having a short memory, and although he's shown signs of rust playing center field, he has found comfort in playing the position.
Hurdle used the term "fresh start" to describe Marte's mindset, but the Pirates' No. 3 hitter said that isn't unique to this season. He approaches each year with that mentality, and this season isn't about proving his doubters wrong. It's about proving himself right.
"Every year is a fresh start," Marte said. "It’s no different. I'm more relaxed at the plate. I still bring the same energy. I’m happy. And focus is the biggest thing."