Andy Marte, once the next superstar, has hit rock bottom. He has been designated for assignment by the Indians.

At age 25, Marte has played in 163 games and hit a paltry .221/.265/.337. That's bad, really bad. But if you look at his splits, his line against lefthanders from last year was .293/.379/.448 in 34 games. Not exactly all-star caliber and just a small sample size, but I would expect that several team could use a right-handed third baseman that's only 25 years old. Casey Blake hit .253/.313/.460 last season with the Dodgers and got $17.5 million for three years. Andy LaRoche has career stats of .184/.288/.277 in 111 games and will be the starting third baseman of the Pirates. He is a few days older than Marte, too.

If you ask me, there is something else behind that. The Tribe Daily offers some possible answer:

1.) There is another trade looming. Someone showed interest in Andy Marte and the Indians are getting ready to ship him out. For what? Nothing crazy, but if a 30 year old relief pitcher who was busted for PEDs is worth an Isaias Velasquez, I don't think I'm overvaluing a 25 year old power hitting third baseman that was once a top prospect.

Sure, we know he isn't what he was billed up to be, at least he won't be here, but that idea is still out there and someone would give up an Isaias Velasquez to find out, that's how baseball works. So I'm not overvaluing him, we following the team tend to undervalue him because we saw what kind of performance they put up. But there are other teams out there that feel the risk would be well-worth it if he reaches just half of what people thought he could be.

2.) Andy Marte pissed off Eric Wedge. Remember that quote the other day about some people not coming into camp in-shape? Remember how I put my money on Andy Marte being one of those players? If this is all true, I'd put even more money on this being a response to Marte's lack of commitment to getting in better baseball shape.

Maybe it's a combination of both. I would not designate a player for assignment just to teach him to stay in shape. But if a trade is in the workings, why not give Andy a little scar to set him straight?

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