The Best Fits For A Ketel Marte Trade
Star Diamondbacks infielder Ketel Marte has dominated trade rumblings over the past month-plus. Despite frequently stating that he doesn't consider a trade likely, general manager Mike Hazen has been hammered by calls from opposing teams hoping to pry the All-Star slugger away from Arizona.
Marte is enough of a known commodity that we needn't run through an extensive breakdown of his résumé here, but it bears spelling out some of the basics. The three-time All-Star and two-time Silver Slugger winner has steadily produced anywhere from above-average to elite offense dating back to 2018. He's a switch-hitter who touts a massive .283/.368/.519 slash (140 wRC+) over the past three seasons. Marte is a superstar talent who's signed to a contract more commensurate with a freshly extended arbitration player. He's owed $102.5MM over the next six seasons, with the final year of that being an $11.5MM player option. He'll be paid $15MM in 2026, $12MM in 2027, $20MM in 2028 and $22MM in 2029-30.
Arizona has reportedly been seeking multiple major league-ready starting pitchers to even consider parting with Marte. Specifically, they're targeting controllable arms who can be long-term cogs in the starting staff. They reportedly talked with the Rays about a deal including both Ryan Pepiot and Shane Baz before the latter was traded to Baltimore, for instance.
Hazen has been relatively open about listening to offers and his reluctance to actually move Marte throughout the winter. He indicated last week that one way or another, he'd like to wrap up this situation soon. That was understandably viewed by many as something of a call for best and final offers.
With resolution on the situation seemingly nigh, one way or another, it feels worth running through the league to find the best fits for Marte, some viable dark-horse spots, and also lay out the clubs that don't feel like they'll be much of a factor at all. Let's run through it all.
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Bregman Rumors: Red Sox, D-Backs, Tigers, Cubs
Alex Bregman’s market appears more muddled after the Blue Jays signed NPB third baseman Kazuma Okamoto. Toronto had been tied to the three-time All-Star but no longer seems to have room for an infielder (barring a reunion with Bo Bichette).
The Red Sox, Diamondbacks, Cubs and Tigers have been the remaining most frequently speculated landing spots. ESPN’s Buster Olney suggested last week that Boston has an offer on the table. In a column at ESPN this morning, Olney floated the possibility that the Red Sox might be willing to do something similar to the six-year, $171.5MM offer which the Tigers reportedly made to Bregman last winter. There’s no firm reporting about what the Red Sox have put on the table, to be clear, so the notion that the Red Sox could go long term seems mostly to be informed speculation on Olney’s part.
Boston landed Bregman on a three-year deal with opt-outs last winter. They juiced the average annual value to $40MM, albeit with significant deferrals that dropped the actual value closer to $30MM annually. Bregman is no longer attached to a qualifying offer and coming off a better season on a rate basis than he had in 2024. He’s also entering his age-32 season, so he may be more incentivized to secure the longest deal and maximum guarantee. The upside of taking short-term deals with opt-outs decreases as a player approaches his mid-30s.
ESPN’s Jesse Rogers and Mark Feinsand of MLB.com each wrote on Tuesday that many within the industry considered Arizona and Toronto the top threats to a Boston reunion before the Jays added Okamoto. That’d naturally point to the Diamondbacks as the strongest challengers now, yet most chatter on the Bregman/Arizona tie has been connected to a potential Ketel Marte trade. With D-Backs general manager Mike Hazen implying they could soon pull Marte from the market entirely, that could have a trickle-down impact on Bregman.
Arizona could certainly fit Marte and Bregman on the roster. The latter would step in as the everyday third baseman. The bigger question is whether ownership would sign off on another nine-figure infield investment after extending Marte for $102.5MM last spring. The long-term payroll would be a bigger stumbling block than this year’s outlook. Marte agreed to defer $6MM of his $15MM salary in 2026, so trading him would only free up a fraction of the first-year salary that Bregman would command.
Meanwhile, two of last year’s finalists appear to be less involved this time around. Detroit has reportedly thus far shied away from making another long-term offer. Top shortstop prospect Kevin McGonigle is on the doorstep of the majors. Bregman would be a significant upgrade over the current third base grouping of Colt Keith, Zach McKinstry and potentially Javier Báez once McGonigle arrives.
Manager A.J. Hinch gave a vote of confidence to McKinstry in response to speculation about a third base acquisition. “I get asked about third base all the time. I’m like, ‘Our guy made the All-Star team,'” Detroit’s skipper told Audacy’s 97.1 The Ticket (h/t to Evan Petzold of The Detroit Free Press).
McKinstry was indeed an All-Star behind an excellent first half, but he has been a career utility player and hit .213/.278/.378 after the Break. It’s hard to believe he’s truly standing in the way of the Tigers signing Bregman — though it’s understandable that Hinch would publicly defend his player. Detroit’s $165MM payroll projection is already more than $20MM above where they opened the 2025 season, which seems a bigger obstacle to a significant free agent move.
The Cubs proposed a four-year, $115MM deal last winter. They’ve been positioned on the periphery of the market this time around. Matt Shaw had an encouraging second half of his rookie season. President of baseball operations Jed Hoyer and GM Carter Hawkins spoke at the Winter Meetings about their confidence in the 24-year-old infielder. It doesn’t appear that much has changed in the past month on that end. Feinsand reports that while the Cubs continue to have some level of interest in Bregman, they’re not expected to make the highest offer.
Hazen: Ketel Marte Trade Talks Won’t Last All Offseason
The big question of the D-Backs offseason has been whether to trade Ketel Marte. They’ve reportedly fielded calls from upwards of a third of the league with teams like the Mariners, Red Sox and Reds most prominently linked. Although general manager Mike Hazen called a trade of a star hitter “mostly unlikely” at the GM Meetings in early November, they’ve kept the line of communication open given their needs around the roster.
According to Hazen, they’re not going to maintain that posture for the entire offseason. “We’re very likely to put an end to (Marte trade talks) shortly,” the GM told Steve Gilbert of MLB.com. When pressed for specifics on the timeline, Hazen said that he “(hasn’t) figured that out yet” but said they can’t afford to remain in a holding pattern for much longer. He implied they were likelier to take Marte firmly off the table rather than nearing agreement on a deal.
“We need to focus our offseason. Again, my gut this whole time was that (a trade) wasn’t going to happen, and I think it seems likely that that’s the case and we want to focus on other things we need to do,” Hazen said. The GM added that talks to date haven’t gotten “anywhere near” the significant asking price they’ve set to move their star second baseman.
On one hand, it’s easy enough to write this off as a general manager trying to pressure interested clubs to raise their offers. Even if Hazen isn’t setting a public deadline, the Snakes could do so internally to get teams to make their best and final trade proposals. At the same time, this generally aligns with the GM’s stance on Marte trade rumors dating back to the summer. Speculation has abounded since August when multiple reports emerged about some of Marte’s teammates being frustrated with the number of off days that he took.
Hazen spoke with Wolf & Luke of Arizona Sports at the time and was naturally asked about the possibility of a trade. “Ketel is one of, if not our best player,” the GM said then. “He’s a superstar in this league. You win with superstars in this league. Yes, I do know it’s a team game and putting a team together to win baseball games is also equally important. That’s on us to figure out what the right mix of players is.
We went to the World Series with this player on our team (in 2023). … So this mindset of where he is on our team and his inability or ability to help us win is hard for me to just take that. … Where this lays down at his feet and where it’s coming from now is a little bizarre to me. I’m not ignoring the inconsistencies with some of the things that have happened. He’s addressed those things. We’ve addressed those things with him.
We’re not blind to having an imperfect clubhouse and an imperfect roster. … I’m also in a job and position to put players on the field that can win you baseball games, because ultimately that’s what this comes down to. We are going to put the best team on the field every single day we can.”
The D-Backs have nevertheless heard teams out as the clearest way to acquire controllable starting pitching. They’re expected to scale back payroll from this past season’s franchise-record $195MM mark. RosterResource currently projects them for $168MM in spending. Marte is set for a $15MM salary next season, but $6MM of that is deferred until 2036. They’re not under any financial pressure to move him, nor are they entering even a soft rebuild. The goal in trade talks would be to acquire multiple MLB or near-ready pieces who could deepen the overall roster.
Despite the payroll limitations, Arizona has addressed the rotation with a pair of free agent pickups. They brought back Merrill Kelly on a two-year, $40MM deal and added swingman Michael Soroka for a $7.5MM guarantee. They could certainly still upgrade a rotation comprising Kelly, Ryne Nelson, Eduardo Rodriguez, Brandon Pfaadt and Soroka. It’s not as pressing a need as it was two months ago, however.
The bigger focus now should be the bullpen, which was decimated by injuries last summer and is still without top two arms Justin Martinez and A.J. Puk. The Snakes also need to decide whether they’re content with Jordan Lawlar as an everyday player (either at third base or in the outfield) and could upgrade in center field or at first base. The Marte trade rumors have come alongside reporting that the Snakes could make a surprise run at Alex Bregman.
“We’re going to need to start focusing on our position player group at some point a little more specifically,” Hazen noted to Gilbert. “That’s the other reason to finalize what we’re doing with other players, so we have a little more direction on what we can do and what it might look like.” Readers are encouraged to check out the MLB.com column for the full scope of Hazen’s comments.
D-Backs Re-Sign John Curtiss To Minor League Deal
The Diamondbacks re-signed reliever John Curtiss to a minor league contract last week (link via Arizona Sports). The righty will presumably get a non-roster invitation to Spring Training.
Curtiss returns to the desert for a second season. He’d elected free agency when the D-Backs waived him at the beginning of the offseason. The 32-year-old spent the second half of the year on the MLB roster. Arizona selected his minor league contract at the end of June. Curtiss went on to toss 36 2/3 innings of 3.93 ERA ball. He picked up three holds and even secured a late-season save, his first in the big leagues since 2020.
That marked Curtiss’ heaviest MLB workload in four years. Although the results were solid enough, he only managed a 17% strikeout rate with a 9% swinging strike mark. His fastball sat in the 94 MPH range and he leaned on a low-90s cutter as his main secondary pitch.
Curtiss was miscast for some of the high-leverage spots in which the Diamondbacks were forced to use him late in the season. He has a decent path to winning a middle relief role if he pitches well during camp. A.J. Puk and Justin Martinez will be on the injured list. They’ve yet to make any MLB additions to a bullpen that needs at least two new leverage arms. They’ve brought in Isaiah Campbell and Junior Fernández on minor league deals this winter.
Mariners Reluctant To Deal From Major League Roster
The Mariners are still hoping to make at least one more notable splash between now and Opening Day, but Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times suggests that they’re reluctant to deal anyone from their big league roster to make it happen. Divish writes that the M’s are willing to move top pitching prospect Jurrangelo Cijntje in a package for Cardinals infielder Brendan Donovan but are less inclined to trade anyone from the big league roster to get him. He adds that president of baseball ops Jerry Dipoto and GM Justin Hollander have both “been adamant” about not wanting to trade an established big league starter as they look to bolster the lineup.
It’s a fairly similar approach to the one taken by Dipoto, Hollander & Co. last offseason. In the winter of 2024-25, the Mariners pursued multiple big-ticket trade items but found many clubs with players available in trade were seeking young big leaguers — not the top prospects that proliferate the top of a stacked Seattle farm system. There are more pure rebuilding clubs this winter, at least on paper, but the Cardinals have prioritized MLB-ready pitching in trades of Sonny Gray (Richard Fitts) and Willson Contreras (Hunter Dobbins). The D-backs reportedly want to add major league pitching (presumably multiple rotation candidates) in any deal for star infielder Ketel Marte.
While Seattle’s system is deep in high-end prospects — the M’s had eight players on Baseball America’s end-of-season top-100 prospect list, though they’ve since traded Harry Ford — the actual depth beyond the big league rotation is relatively thin. Each of Luis Castillo, Logan Gilbert, Bryan Woo and George Kirby started at least 23 games in 2025. All pitched well — Kirby had a couple brutal outings but was largely strong — but only Castillo did so while avoiding an IL stint. Bryce Miller missed more than half the season due to elbow inflammation. The options beyond that pair are less encouraging.
Emerson Hancock is a former No. 6 overall pick but spent the latter part of the season as a reliever. He’ll head into camp as a starter but has been viewed as a more of a fifth starter candidate than one would expect based on that lofty draft billing. He’ll turn 27 in May and has a career 4.81 ERA with a poor 15.6% strikeout rate in 162 MLB innings. Twenty-four-year-old Logan Evans tossed 81 1/3 innings with a 4.32 ERA as a rookie this past season and briefly drew some top-100 fanfare before his own promotion to the majors. Like Hancock, he struggled to miss bats in the big leagues (16.9 K%, 7.8% swinging-strike rate). He also was hit hard in 11 Triple-A starts last year.
Depth options beyond those seven are thin. Jhonathan Diaz and Blas Castano are both on the 40-man roster but are already in their late 20s with no MLB track record of which to speak. The Mariners have plenty of notable pitching prospects, including Cijntje, Ryan Sloan and 2025 No. 3 overall pick Kade Anderson. Cijntje has all of seven Double-A starts under his belt, though, and could require more development time than most prospects given his status as an extremely uncommon switch-pitcher. Sloan hasn’t pitched above A-ball. Anderson didn’t pitch for a Mariners affiliate after last summer’s draft. Former prospects like Taylor Dollard and Michael Morales went unselected in this year’s Rule 5 Draft despite being eligible. The former has battled injury troubles. The latter was hit fairly hard and notched just a 16% strikeout rate in Double-A this season.
The Mariners could certainly deal from their rotation to improve the lineup and backfill with a lower-cost free agent signing, but it’s understandable if the front office is reluctant to at all jeopardize the team’s depth, given the shaky performances of Miller, Hancock and (to a lesser extent) Evans in 2025. If anything, one could argue that it’d be prudent to add to the current group by signing/acquiring some optionable depth or a swingman/sixth starter to plug into a long relief role to begin the year.
NL West Notes: Murakami, Hwang, Closers
Munetaka Murakami came into the offseason as one of the more intriguing names on the free agent market. He slotted in at No. 4 on our annual Top 50 MLB Free Agents list. Despite Murakami’s prolific power in NPB, the reported interest around the young slugger was minimal as the winter progressed. The White Sox and Red Sox were among the only known suitors. Murakami ultimately went to Chicago on a modest two-year, $34MM deal.
The Diamondbacks were among the teams interested in Murakami, reports John Gambadoro of 98.7 Arizona Sports. Gambadoro added that the former Japanese star was “one of a few of the Asian players” the Diamondbacks were considering. He didn’t mention any other names, but the free agent market includes several notable players making the jump stateside, including Tatsuya Imai and Kazuma Okamoto. MLBTR’s Anthony Franco predicted Okamoto would sign with Arizona in the aforementioned Top 50 FAs piece.
Arizona’s connection to Murakami makes sense given the state of the club’s corner infield spots. First baseman Josh Naylor and third baseman Eugenio Suarez were dealt to Seattle in separate deals at the trade deadline. That left Pavin Smith and Tyler Locklear (who came over in the Suarez trade) to handle the majority of the first base reps. Blaze Alexander stepped in as the primary third baseman.
Top prospect Jordan Lawlar is slated to step in at the hot corner in 2026, but first base is a question mark. Locklear had surgery on both his left elbow and shoulder in October. He’s a candidate to begin the season on the injured list. That leaves Smith and utilityman Tim Tawa as the current options at first base. Arizona finished with the 5th-lowest OPS at the position last season. With Murakami off the board, the club could look to pursue at least a right-handed complement to Smith, and perhaps an upgrade altogether.
On the pitching side, Gambadoro mentioned he expects the team to look into the closer market. Arizona will be without top closers Justin Martinez and A.J. Puk for the majority of the season. Both relievers had Tommy John surgery in June. The current closer mix is an uninspiring group that includes Andrew Saalfrank, Ryan Thompson, and Kevin Ginkel.
Arizona’s bullpen ranked 25th in xFIP and 28th in SIERA last season. The club had a whopping 17 pitchers record saves in 2025. Shelby Miller led the way with 10 saves. He was dealt to Milwaukee at the trade deadline. The Diamondbacks had four saves in the final month of the season, and they went to four different pitchers (Jake Woodford, Taylor Rashi, Kyle Backhus, John Curtiss).
Martinez and Puk won’t be out forever, so Arizona doesn’t need a long-term solution. The reliever market is beginning to thin out, but there are still a handful of options with closing experience available. Seranthony Dominguez, Ryan Pressly, or Chad Green could make sense as short-term closers who have been setup men in the past. Arizona’s Opening Day closer will likely slot in behind Martinez and Puk once they return, so experience in the 7th and 8th innings would be useful.
Elsewhere in the NL West, former Giants infielder Jae-gyun Hwang announced his retirement (h/t to J.P. Hoornstra of The Big Lead). Hwang had spent the last eight seasons with the KT Wiz of KBO. He’d been in professional baseball since 2007.
Hwang made the jump to MLB in 2017 after a decade in KBO. He signed a split contract with the Giants in January that year. Hwang posted decent results in Triple-A, hitting .285 with 10 home runs and seven steals across 98 games. He was up and down a couple of times with the big-league club, with unimpressive results. Hwang went 8-for-52 in 18 games with the Giants. He did launch a home run for his first MLB hit, taking Kyle Freeland deep in his third career at-bat.
Hwang was outrighted off the 40-man roster in September 2017. After his lone season with the Giants, the Wiz lured him back to KBO with a four-year, $7.9MM deal. He was a well-above-average hitter for the duration of the agreement and remained productive at the plate for the rest of his career, including a 94 wRC+ as a 37-year-old in his final season.
We at MLBTR wish Hwang the best in his future endeavours beyond baseball.
Photo courtesy of Matt Marton, Imagn Images
Diamondbacks Sign Luken Baker To Minor League Contract
The Diamondbacks have signed first baseman Luken Baker to a minors deal, Just Baseball Media’s Aram Leighton reports. Baker qualified for minor league free agency at the end of the season, and he chose to test the open market rather than stick in the Dodgers’ organization.
A second-round pick for the Cardinals in the 2018 draft, Baker spent most of his career in the St. Louis organization before he was claimed off the waiver wire by the Dodgers in early August. Baker never saw any MLB playing time in Los Angeles, so his big league resume remains his 73 games played with the Cardinals over the 2023-25 seasons, with a .206/.317/.338 slash line and four home runs to show for 189 plate appearances.
This lack of production didn’t exactly merit more playing time, yet Baker was also blocked to some extent by the presence of Paul Goldschmidt, Willson Contreras, Alec Burleson, and others at first base. Baker is limited by his lack of defensive versatility, as he has played only first base and DH during his pro career. This made him an expendable piece even on a Cardinals team that is turning into a rebuild, as Baker is entering his age-29 season.
Baker got his first call-up to the majors on the strength of a huge season with Triple-A Memphis in 2023, when he hit .334/.439/.720 with 33 home runs over 380 PA. He followed that year up with a 32-homer campaign and a lesser (.231/.345/.535) slash line in Memphis in 2024, but his numbers continued to tail off, as Baker hit only .223/.335/.441 with 18 homers over 409 combined PA with the Cardinals’ and Dodgers’ top affiliates in 2025. While Baker’s numbers improved greatly after his move from Memphis to Oklahoma City, this may have had less to do with a change of scenery and more to do with the move to the pitcher-friendly Pacific Coast League.
The Diamondbacks’ Triple-A Reno club is also in the PCL, so it wouldn’t be a shock if Baker posts some numbers in 2026 that look pretty gaudy on paper. There’s no risk for the Snakes in seeing what Baker can do in at least a depth capacity, and if he can turn his raw power into any sort of consistent production at the big league level. In terms of the MLB roster, the right-handed hitting Baker could be a fit in a platoon situation with the lefty-swinging Pavin Smith at first base and DH, and the D’Backs may be hoping that Baker can follow Smith’s example as a late bloomer who didn’t start to break out in the majors until his late 20s.
Signing Baker to a non-guaranteed deal shouldn’t prevent the D’Backs from exploring more prominent right-handed bats for this role, such as former Arizona star Paul Goldschmidt. The Diamondbacks’ infield situation in general remains in something of a state of flux, as rumors continue to swirl that Ketel Marte could be traded, and that the D’Backs could be a dark horse suitor for Alex Bregman. Such moves wouldn’t necessarily impact the first base role, unless another first base candidate or right-handed bat was potentially brought on board as part of a Marte trade package.
Details On Ketel Marte’s No-Trade Protection
The seven-year contract extension Ketel Marte signed with the Diamondbacks last April included a five-team no-trade clause, which adds an interesting wrinkle to the trade rumors that have swirled around the former NLCS MVP in recent weeks. As reported by The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal, the Athletics, Cardinals, Giants, Pirates, and Yankees are the five teams included on Marte’s current list, which can be updated every offseason.
There are any number of reasons why a player may include a particular team on a no-trade list, and it is worth noting that Marte could still ultimately approve a deal to any of these clubs. There is no obvious geographic link between the five teams, and while the Yankees were the only member of the group to reach the 2025 playoffs, the Giants, Pirates, and even the A’s are all looking to compete in 2026. The Cardinals are in rebuild mode, so it is safe to say they weren’t in the running to acquire Marte anyway.
Interestingly, the Pirates and Giants have been linked to Marte’s trade market. Now that Pittsburgh has landed Brandon Lowe from the Rays in yesterday’s big three-team swap, the Bucs may feel their second base needs have been addressed, though there is a world where Lowe could be a primary DH and Marte could still be brought aboard. Still, there’s such a hefty amount of money remaining on Marte’s contract that a trade to the budget-conscious Pirates always seemed like an imperfect fit, and Marte’s no-trade list might well underline his own reservations about joining a team with just one winning season in the last decade.
San Francisco has also topped the .500 mark only once in the last nine seasons, but the Giants have been much more willing to spend in their bid to return to consistent contention. While ownership is wary about making another long-term financial commitment, Marte’s deal could be viewed as a relative bargain, since he would land way more than $102.5MM on a six-year deal if he was a free agent this winter.
Second base is a need position for the Giants, though perhaps not as pressing as the club’s need for more rotation help. Making a big splash in acquiring Marte might not be as big a priority, in that case, plus there are the added obstacles of Marte’s no-trade protection and the Diamondbacks’ probable reluctance to move the All-Star to a division rival. San Francisco is considered to be one of the favorites to pry Brendan Donovan away from the Cardinals, so that might end up being the Giants’ big move to address the keystone.
The Giants and Pirates each play in pitcher-friendly ballparks, which might factor into Marte’s reasoning for including the teams on his list. Sutter Health Park is extremely hitter-friendly, yet it is fair to wonder if Marte just doesn’t want to play in a minor league stadium for at least the next two seasons while the A’s await the construction of their new ballpark in Las Vegas.
The A’s have a big hole at second base, and acquiring Marte would add another top-tier bat to a lineup that already includes Nick Kurtz, Brent Rooker, Tyler Soderstrom, Jacob Wilson, and Shea Langeliers. While the A’s have been a bit more willing to spend over the last year, Marte’s remaining salary would represent a new spending frontier for the traditionally low-payroll team. Hypothetically, Luis Severino could be included in a Marte trade as salary offset, but that assumes Arizona (who needs rotation help) has any interest in Severino in the wake of his uninspiring 2025 season.
The Yankees are the most interesting inclusion on Marte’s list, as one would think he would welcome a chance to join a perennial contender. Jazz Chisholm Jr. is already playing second base in the Bronx, but Chisholm is a free agent next winter, so Marte would represent a longer-term answer at the position. Purely speculatively, any kind of Diamondbacks/Yankees trade involving Marte could see Chisholm going the other way, to give Arizona a one-year stopgap at second or third base.
Re-signing Cody Bellinger is thought be the Yankees’ top offseason priority, though New York might pivot to other backup plans should Bellinger sign elsewhere. Landing Marte would certainly qualify as a substantial Plan B, yet his no-trade clause might make any potential trade a moot point.
Amidst all of the reports and speculation, it remains unclear if the Diamondbacks actually will trade away a star player who received such a lengthy contract extension less than a year ago. With Lowe now in Pittsburgh, however, one big second-base trade chip has been removed from the board, leaving other teams in need of keystone help perhaps more open to meeting Arizona’s demands for Marte. Beyond the Pirates and Giants, such teams as the Mariners, Rays, Red Sox, Blue Jays, Phillies, and Tigers have all reportedly shown some degree of interest in a Marte trade this winter.
D-Backs, Ildemaro Vargas Agree To Minor League Deal
The Diamondbacks are in agreement on a new minor league contract with infielder Ildemaro Vargas, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post. The MAS+ Agency client returns to the organization after being outrighted off the roster at the end of the season.
Vargas has plenty of familiarity with the D-Backs. The veteran utilityman has played three separate big league stints and parts of six seasons in the desert. He got into 38 games this past season. Vargas hit .270 but only walked twice in 121 plate appearances, leading to a modest .292 on-base percentage. He’s a .249/.289/.357 hitter over parts of nine MLB seasons.
Defensive versatility has been Vargas’ calling card. The majority of his experience has been at shortstop, but he saw more action between second and third base this year. He’s entering his age-34 season and likely headed to Triple-A Reno. The D-Backs also added glove-first shortstop Jacob Amaya as non-roster infield depth earlier this offseason.
Diamondbacks Outright Bryce Jarvis
December 19th: The Diamondbacks announced today that Jarvis cleared waivers and has been sent outright to Triple-A Reno.
December 12th: The Diamondbacks announced that right-hander Bryce Jarvis has been designated for assignment. That’s the corresponding 40-man move for their signing of Michael Soroka, which is now official.
Jarvis, 28 this month, was Arizona’s first-round pick in the 2020 draft. The Snakes took him with the 18th overall pick and signed him with a $2.65MM bonus. He was a notable prospect for a bit but his stock has been dropping effectively since he was drafted.
He posted lackluster results as he worked his way up the minor league ladder, working mostly as a starter. In 2022, he made 25 Double-A starts but allowed 8.28 earned runs per nine in the process.
In 2023, he had a 5.08 ERA on the farm, slightly better but obviously still not ideal. Nonetheless, the Diamondbacks called him up to work out of the big league bullpen. He posted a 3.04 ERA there, although that number was misleading. His 9.8% walk rate was subpar and his 13% strikeout rate well below average. A tiny .162 batting average on balls in play and a high strand rate of 74.5% helped him out.
It was a similar story in 2024. Jarvis posted a 3.19 ERA but with subpar numbers under the hood. In 2025, his luck corrected, as he had a 5.73 ERA. He also continued to make starts at the Triple-A level, but with an 8.47 ERA in those.
Over the past three years, Jarvis has logged 105 big league innings. His 3.69 ERA doesn’t look bad but his 15.8% strikeout rate and 11.8% walk rate are both poor figures. He would have allowed more runs if not for a .251 BABIP and 76% strand rate. His 4.97 FIP and 5.11 SIERA are likely more accurate representations of the work he has done so far.
Jarvis has now been bumped off the roster in Arizona and will be in DFA limbo for a week at most. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so the Snakes could take five days to explore trades. Jarvis does have an option remaining, so it’s possible some club takes a shot on his draft pedigree and hopes for a breakout.
Photo courtesy of Joe Rondone, Imagn Images