Mets' Starling Marte trying to avoid another groin surgery
Starling Marte #6 of the New York Mets reacts to striking out during the fifth inning against the Houston Astros at Minute Maid Park on June 21, 2023 in Houston, Texas. Credit: Getty Images/Carmen Mandato
Starling Marte’s productive week of physical therapy with a specialist in Philadelphia produced diminished pain and additional strength in his legs/ core, he said, and thus provided optimism that he might be able to return this season.
But if his chronic groin issues do not continue to improve, he might need another surgery.
For now, Marte and the Mets are making every effort to avoid that worst-case scenario, which wouldn’t even be a surefire cure.
Marte does not want to have to start over.
“That would be really frustrating, because then the goal would be to rehab and strengthen everything all over again and you have to put playing a little bit further [away] on the horizon,” Marte, who will turn 35 next month, said through an interpreter Sunday. “It’s something you have to think about, but the goal at the end of the day is to go out there and play. No matter what happens, you want to avoid surgery, you want to continue to strengthen everything you need to strengthen.”
Marte noted that surgery, if required, would be the same “I had last year, just all over again.”
He had an operation on both sides of his groin in November after playing through pain for much of the 2022 season. But he healed in such a way that during this season, he plainly has not been his usual electric self. Lingering discomfort and sometimes outright pain have negatively impacted virtually every aspect of his game.
The issue, according to manager Buck Showalter, is scar tissue. And the way his scar tissue developed this time — a way that is not conducive to playing baseball at an elite level — probably would be the same next time.
“Let’s face it: Everybody scars down differently. If you go in there to take care of that scarring, then there’s another scarring behind that,” Showalter said. “Then you’ve got to go through that [rehab] process again. Without getting too medical, if you have this way of scarring and you do something again, you’re going to scar the same way again.
“I think he knows how important this attempt is to keep that from happening. He’s going about it very diligently, not that he wasn’t before. It’s just we tried some new methodology that seems to be working. We’ll see.”
Marte spoke highly of his work in Philadelphia, characterizing the “alternative training methods” as “productive.” He worked with the same physical therapist as Tiger Woods and Sidney Crosby.
“He’s really good at what he does,” Marte said. “It was something that I wasn’t necessarily doing here. I think it was productive, it was helpful. And the guys here can take some things away from there that I can start implementing here to continue strengthening my body.”
With four weeks remaining in the season, Marte’s goal remains to return to the active roster “as long as we continue to progress the way that we want to progress and we keep strengthening everything we need to do,” he said. He has played in only four games since the All-Star break and owns a career-worst .248/.301/.324 slash line overall.
Getting back into games would not preclude him from having surgery, Showalter said.
A second surgery would raise questions about what the Mets reasonably could expect from Marte over the next two seasons. He is about halfway through a four-year, $78 million contract that has yielded one All-Star season and one miserable one.
“I’m not going to get all down about that possibility,” Showalter said. “We think what’s going on right now has the potential to [allow Marte to avoid surgery]. That’s not a good option.”
Marte said: “If they feel like surgery is the course to go, that’ll happen. The main objective is to be able to go out there comfortable, pain-free, and to be able to produce for this team.”
Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.
