{"id":335273,"date":"2025-12-07T15:38:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-07T15:38:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/335273\/"},"modified":"2025-12-07T15:38:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-07T15:38:07","slug":"red-sox-rays-tigers-among-the-teams-to-check-in-on-ketel-marte","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/335273\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Sox, Rays, Tigers Among The Teams To “Check In” On Ketel Marte"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Red Sox, Rays, and Tigers are among the teams to have checked in with the Diamondbacks regarding star second baseman Ketel Marte<\/a>, according to a report from USA Today\u2019s Bob Nightengale<\/a> this morning. Reporting last month indicated that at least seven teams<\/a> had inquired after Marte with Arizona, and this trio of names joins the Phillies and Blue Jays<\/a> as known teams with interest in Marte\u2019s services. None of this should be taken as an indication that a trade is necessarily close or expected; D-backs GM Mike Hazen emphasized at the outset of the offseason that a trade of Marte was \u201cmostly unlikely.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Marte, 32, is a three-time All-Star who was an MVP finalist just last year. Easily one of the best offensive infield talents in the game at he moment, Marte is slashing .283\/.368\/.519 (140 wRC+) over the past three years with 15.3 fWAR. That\u2019s good for he ninth-best wRC+ and 12th-highest fWAR total of any position player over the stretch, and his 145 wRC+ in 126 games this year led all infielders. It\u2019s easy to see, then, why so many teams would be interested in the star\u2019s services if the Diamondbacks were to decide to make him available. That\u2019s especially true given that he remains an above-average defender at second base with +10 Outs Above Average at the position over the past three years.<\/p>\n

That might make it hard to imagine why the Diamondbacks would even consider dealing one of their franchise\u2019s biggest stars, but Arizona will need to re-evaluate much of its future after missing the playoffs in back-to-back seasons and falling to fourth in the NL West this past year despite record-setting payroll numbers for the franchise. The Diamondbacks haven\u2019t been shy about the idea that their current spending isn\u2019t sustainable, and getting the $101MM owed to Marte over the next five years off the books would surely help pay for players like Corbin Carroll<\/a> and Corbin Burnes<\/a> who are already on longer deals themselves.<\/p>\n

In addition to potential financial concerns, the Diamondbacks clearly need to bolster a rotation that will not only be without Burnes for most (if not all) of 2026 as he rehabs Tommy John surgery, but also saw Zac Gallen<\/a> head into free agency this winter and lost Merrill Kelly<\/a> in a trade with the Rangers over the summer. Even with his nine-figure contract, Marte would surely bring back a haul of pitching talent if traded, leaving Arizona in a position where they at least have to consider offers from clubs loaded with young talent to offer.<\/p>\n

All three of the clubs mentioned by Nightengale certainly fit that description. The Red Sox are overflowing with controllable starting pitching talent at this point. After adding Sonny Gray<\/a> and Johan Oviedo<\/a> to a rotation that already included Garrett Crochet<\/a>, Brayan Bello<\/a>, and Patrick Sandoval<\/a> this winter, Boston\u2019s rotation mix appears to be more or less set headed into 2026. That leaves players like Connelly Early<\/a>, Payton Tolle<\/a>, Kyle Harrison<\/a>, Hunter Dobbins<\/a>, and Kutter Crawford<\/a> without clear paths to regular starts.<\/p>\n

While some of those pieces will surely be kept around as depth and protection against injury, the team could certainly afford to part ways with some of that pitching talent in order to bring in a player of Marte\u2019s caliber. That could be especially appealing for Boston given reports that the club wants to add multiple big bats to the lineup this winter but may not have<\/a> the financial flexibility to do so through the free agent market. In addition, the Sox could also a young position player to help replace Marte in Arizona\u2019s lineup such as Triston Casas<\/a> and Kristian Campbell<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Turning to the Rays, they\u2019d be a surprising fit for Marte\u2019s services to say the least. The team\u2019s financial flexibility is said to be very limited this winter, as is typically the case for a team that routinely runs a payroll below $100MM. That led the club to decline their one-year option on righty Pete Fairbanks<\/a> and even is spurring some rumors about the possibility of a Brandon Lowe<\/a> trade. With that being said, however, a fit isn\u2019t completely impossible to imagine. The Rays have always operated in creative and unconventional ways, after all, and replacing Lowe with Marte would only add $4MM to the team\u2019s budget for this year due to the structure of Marte\u2019s contract.<\/p>\n

That could allow the Rays to add a major offensive upgrade for a year or two before looking to flip the veteran to another club when his contract gets more expensive in later seasons. It wouldn\u2019t be the first time the Rays have weighed the possibility of adding a star-caliber player, as they pursued Freddie Freeman<\/a> in free agency and considered attempting to pull off a Shohei Ohtani<\/a> trade at the 2023 trade deadline. Of course, that was under Stu Sternberg\u2019s ownership, and how exactly Patrick Zalupski will differ from his predecessor on these matters is yet to be seen. The biggest question regarding a possible Marte pursuit from the Rays mostly has to do with what they could offer in return; young starters like Shane Baz<\/a> and Ryan Pepiot<\/a> would certainly be enticing, but both figure to be key pieces of a somewhat depleted Rays rotation in 2026.<\/p>\n

As for the Tigers, the club figures to be hungry to improve in what could be Tarik Skubal<\/a>\u2019s final year with the organization. Detroit has one of the league\u2019s very best farm systems, and while their best prospects lean more towards the positional side of things, a young pitcher like Troy Melton<\/a> would surely have plenty of appeal for the Diamondbacks if surrounded by other top talent. Marte\u2019s fit with the Tigers might be a bit complicated in 2026 given that Gleyber Torres<\/a> accepted the qualifying offer and will return to the keystone next year, but Detroit has shown a willingness to get creative with its players\u2019 positions in the past. It\u2019s also worth noting that, while Marte has played second base exclusively in recent years, he does have nearly 1300 innings under his belt in center field, which saw Detroit rely on players like Parker Meadows<\/a> and Javier Baez<\/a> in 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Red Sox, Rays, and Tigers are among the teams to have checked in with the Diamondbacks regarding…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":335274,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[10002,363,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-335273","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-ketel-marte","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=335273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/335274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=335273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=335273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=335273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}