The Royals made it official on August 17: Starling Marte has been designated for assignment. It's the kind of move that barely registers as news until you remember Marte was a $105 million-plus player not too long ago, and now he's the odd man out on a Kansas City team that's already waved the white flag on 2026.
The timing tells the whole story. Kansas City reinstated Vinnie Pasquantino and Maikel Garcia from the injured list and recalled lefty Connor Thomas from Triple-A Omaha, which meant something had to give on the 40-man roster. In corresponding moves, the Royals optioned Josh Rojas and Jose Cuas to Omaha — but Marte, who was on a one-year deal, got the full DFA treatment instead of a demotion.
It's not hard to see why he was the one squeezed out. Marte signed with Kansas City in March on a modest deal worth $1 million guaranteed with up to $2 million in performance bonuses — a low-risk flier for a team hoping he had something left after two solid seasons with the Mets in 2024-25, when he hit.269/.331/.398 with 23 stolen bases over 699 plate appearances. That bet didn't pay off. In a reserve outfield role this year, Marte slashed just.242/.298/.314 with 2 homers and 2 steals across 168 plate appearances.
For a Royals team that's already sold at the trade deadline and is playing out the string, this isn't a shocking twist so much as a roster-management formality. But it's still a rough capstone on a career that included an All-Star nod, a batting title, and a World Series ring with Miami and later Houston in previous chapters. Now Marte enters waivers or free agency at 37, looking for whatever's left.
The immediate winners here are Pasquantino and Garcia, both back healthy and presumably back in the lineup down the stretch, plus Connor Thomas getting another look out of the Kansas City bullpen or rotation mix. For Marte, it's a waiting game — any team that claims him off waivers would only owe him the league minimum, with Kansas City still on the hook for the rest, so there's at least a mild incentive for a contender to take a flier of their own.