Over the last week, there has been an uptick in incidents between Major League Baseball players and the fans in attendance. The latest happened during a game between the Minnesota Twins' division rival, the Chicago White Sox, and the Arizona Diamondbacks.
While the Diamondbacks were in the middle of a pitching change, cameras caught infielder Ketel Marte noticeably upset, to the point where he had to be consoled by manager Torey Lovullo and his D-Backs teammates.
Sending love to Ketel Marte who was in tears on the field after a fan yelled something at him about his mother, who passed away in a car accident in 2017, per @CDrottar19 pic.twitter.com/I14Zc1gkV1
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) June 25, 2025
As was made clear during the broadcast, at the time, it wasn't clear what had Marte distraught. After the game, Lovullo provided insight into the incident.
“It was a terrible moment,” Lovullo told reporters after the game. “Fans are nasty, and fans go too far. I love my players, and I’m going to protect them. ... I’ve known Ketel for nine years, and he’s had some unbelievably great moments and some hardships, as well. Some really, really tough moments in his life, and I know those. At the end of the day, we’re human beings and we have emotions. I saw him hurting, and I wanted to protect him.”
Fan incident with Ketel Marte leaves Twins’ division rival disgraced
It was later revealed that the fan in question made some discouraging comments about Marte's late mother. Marte's mother tragically passed away in 2017 after a car accident in the Dominican Republic. It was another example of a line being crossed between fans in attendance and the players on the field.
The incident between Marte and the White Sox fan came a week after there was a similar incident between Pittsburgh Pirates relief pitcher Dennis Santana and a Detroit Tigers fan. A recent report indicated that the fan used racial slurs in his heckling of Santana while also making mention of the pitcher's late father.
There simply is no place in the game for incidents like what happened with Marte and Santana in the past week. As was the case with Santana last week, the fan involved in the incident with Marte on Tuesday night was ejected from the game.