{"id":148665,"date":"2026-02-28T23:12:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T23:12:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/148665\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T23:12:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T23:12:15","slug":"starling-marte-signing-with-royals-after-four-years-with-mets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/148665\/","title":{"rendered":"Starling Marte signing with Royals after four years with Mets"},"content":{"rendered":"

A longtime Met is heading to a new ballclub. <\/p>\n

Starling Marte has agreed to a major league contract with the Royals on Saturday, MLB.com\u2019s Mark Feinsand reported<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Terms of the deal \u2014 which is still pending a physical \u2014 are not yet clear. <\/p>\n

The 37-year-old Marte spent the past four years with the Mets after signing a four-year, $78 million contract before the 2022 season. <\/p>\n

\"MetsMets outfielder Starling Marte hits a double during the eighth inning at Citi Field on Saturday, September 20, 2025 in Queens, New York. JASON SZENES\/ NY POST<\/p>\n

That first season ended up being both his most productive and the one where he spent the most time on the field, as he slashed .292\/.347\/.468 with 16 homers and made the National League All-Star team.<\/p>\n

Injuries, though, limited him to just 278 games and a .694 OPS over the final three years of the contract.<\/p>\n

In 2024, he played a key role in the \u201cOMG\u201d Mets playoff run, as he collected three hits in the wild-card round against the Brewers, including an RBI single in the ninth inning of the clinching game.<\/p>\n

In six games over the NLCS loss to the Dodgers, he was one of the Mets\u2019 best hitters, going 9-for-27 with four doubles and four RBIs.<\/p>\n

In a part-time role \u2014 mostly as a designated hitter \u2014 in 2025, Marte had a 111 OPS+, which was his best mark since 2022.<\/p>\n

\"NewNew York Mets outfielder Starling Marte (6) reacts after he hits a walk off RBI single to win the game in the bottom of the 10th inning against the Philadelphia Phillies. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST<\/p>\n

Outside of his playing ability, Marte emerged as an important person in the clubhouse, as outfielder Juan Soto told The Post\u2019s Mike Puma in August<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s literally the leader of this team \u2014 I feel like he\u2019s actually the captain of this team,\u201d Soto said. \u201cHe\u2019s bringing everybody together. He\u2019s bringing the energy that we need. He\u2019s a guy who has been stepping up every single time, it doesn\u2019t matter what.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s actually the real deal of the team. He\u2019s the model of the team. Everybody, when they want to talk and get to know something or have a conversation, they can go to him. He\u2019s actually the real deal.\u201d<\/p>\n

He now joins a Royals team that finished 82-80 one year after they reached the playoffs as a wild-card entrant before losing to the Yankees in the American League Division Series.<\/p>\n

DH proved to be one of the weaker spots in Kansas City\u2019s lineup last season with a .615 OPS.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A longtime Met is heading to a new ballclub. Starling Marte has agreed to a major league contract…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148666,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[30930,20,3473,9,11,320,10,319,55941,56510],"class_list":["post-148665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-kansas-city-royals","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-free-agency","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-mets","tag-new-york-news","tag-sports","tag-spring-training","tag-starling-marte"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}