Among players who were not traded this offseason, few found themselves in more rumors than Ketel Marte. Arizona general manager Mike Hazen maintained throughout the winter that a trade was unlikely and said last month that talks never got close to a deal. Nevertheless, the D-Backs took calls from various teams who had interest in their star second baseman.
The Mariners were among the clubs that checked in as they pursued a high-impact infielder. Seattle surely had some interest in Marte, who began his career in the organization before being traded to Arizona over the 2016-17 offseason. Adam Jude of The Seattle Times reports that conversations about bringing Marte back to the Pacific Northwest didn’t progress far. According to Jude, that’s at least in part because the M’s balked at including second-year infielder Cole Young in a deal.
That aligns with a December report from Jude’s Seattle Times colleague, Ryan Divish, that the Mariners were reluctant to trade off their major league roster. The M’s wound up landing their preferred target, Brendan Donovan, in a three-team trade with the Cardinals and Rays. It required them to part with one big leaguer, third baseman Ben Williamson. Williamson was a secondary piece in that deal, which was headlined by Double-A pitching prospect Jurrangelo Cijntje. A deal built around Young would have subtracted a higher-upside player than Williamson from the MLB team.
Donovan is a more versatile defensive player than Marte. He’s expected to kick over to third base to begin the season. That’ll open the path for Young to win the second base job. The 22-year-old struggled as a rookie, batting .211/.302/.305 with four home runs across 257 plate appearances. He showed an advanced plate approach but didn’t hit the ball hard enough consistently to do damage.
Young lost playing time down the stretch and was left off the playoff rosters. Jorge Polanco was the starting second baseman in October, while the M’s felt Leo Rivas provided a better contact-oriented infielder off the bench.
Jude’s reporting suggests the Mariners haven’t lost any faith in Young’s upside. The former first-round pick was an excellent hitter at every minor league stop. He’d posted a .277/.392/.461 line with more walks than strikeouts over 54 Triple-A games. Young still didn’t put up huge home run tallies, but he hit the ball harder with more consistent gap power against minor league pitching. Although he has exhausted his prospect eligibility, he remains one of the organization’s most promising young players. He’s under club control for six full seasons and would be a borderline candidate for Super Two eligibility over the 2027-28 offseason if he sticks on the MLB roster.
Young hit a HR 114 mph, anyone else see that fangraphs (?) article about how max exit velo is the most predictive stat rookie year for hitters? Young also passed the eye test for me at the plate at least.
Even then Marte is probably worth it
Young struck two balls above 113mph — baseballsavant.mlb.com/sporty-videos?playId=dacfde… and baseballsavant.mlb.com/sporty-videos?playId=eae5f8…
It should be noted, these were both pulled. Young has yet to demonstrate power to other fields. The standard power metrics EV90 and the like aren’t thrilled with Cole Young yet. The maximum velocity probably indicate he can belong and has the potential to stick around.
Hard to say because it wouldn’t have been a 1 for 1 swap either. Marte has a much higher floor. I think if the Mariners were closer last year they would do it just because having him as a switch hitter in the heart of the order makes the whole lineup better.
How much closer could they have gotten aside from playing in or winning the world series? At that point I think it’s more than justified to take the swing.
Marte is a great player on a pretty reasonable deal -not really an under pay or an over pay-but at this point he feels like one of those players viewed as a 4-D chess move if a team did acquire him.
That should have been an easy deal to make, but we’ll see if Cole Young has what it takes this year.
The only issue with Marte is he’s already 32. and they’d be acquiring his downhill years. id rather bet on C.Young.
There were other pieces involved no doubt
He is very young with a mature approach at the plate. I get not trading him but that’s tough because Marte would make the team damn near flawless. But that’s only for a year or two.