Ketel Marte is slated to be the Diamondbacks’ starting second baseman, but it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him get occasional starts in center field or at shortstop. Marte seems to be fine with this, but the bouncing around does have at least one potential downside.

“I want to get out there and have a chance to win a Gold Glove,” Marte said during a conference call on Friday afternoon.

“I’m very open to playing all the positions that the manager and everyone wants me to play. I feel comfortable moving around as much as I can. The one thing that would keep me playing one position is trying to win a Gold Glove.”

Marte is right in believing he would have an easier path to a Gold Glove at one position. Utility players don’t win the award, no matter how deserving. Some advanced metrics were high on Marte’s play in center field last year, but he did not even manage to rate among National League Gold Glove finalists at the position, likely in part because he played only 96 games there.

Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said he liked hearing about Marte’s desire to win the award, seeing it as proof of Marte’s drive to be great. With Starling Marte set to serve as the club’s everyday center fielder, Lovullo said he doesn’t expect to use Ketel Marte as much at positions other than second this season.

“I think I’ll focus on those type of changes when somebody needs a day off,” Lovullo said. “It’s not something I should really mess with unless there’s a need for it.”

Evaluation time

The Diamondbacks might be fortunate in that they do not appear to have many major decisions to make with their roster in the next two weeks. Evaluating players is tricky enough during spring training; it likely is even more difficult in this year’s camp environment.

That said, Lovullo said there are plenty of markers he is looking for out of his players as the team’s July 24 opener approaches. He it starts with an “ease and a patient approach” to the game on both sides of the ball.

“Is the timing there?” Lovullo said. “Is the swing plane there? Are you swinging at balls or strikes? Is there finish to pitches? Does it have an extra gear? Are you landing breaking balls? Are you throwing to your spots?I know our pitchers can throw to a spot perfectly and a ball can get banged around a couple of times.

“I’m not focused on the results. I’ll look at the whole piece of that puzzle. It’s nice to see somebody get a hit, but I’ll also look and see where that ball landed. And if a pitcher hits his spot, I’ll consider that a net positive.”

Infielder Ildemaro Vargas was perhaps the star of the first week of camp, going deep at least a half dozen times in live batting practice/intrasquad games.

Short hop

The Diamondbacks had another positive COVID-19 test result from a player on the 40-man roster on Saturday, Lovullo said. He was unable to provide any further details.

Reach Piecoro at (602) 444-8680 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @nickpiecoro.

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