With the Diamondbacks’ Ketel Marte rumored as available in a trade, Cleveland Guardians’ ownership and front office are being presented with a perfect opportunity to make a legacy defining trade.
First, let’s identify the source of the rumor, which is Bob Nightengale of USA Today:
The usual caveat here: Nightengale is FAR from the most credible reporter, but he is certainly someone that front offices use to release information. So, is this rumor coming from competing front offices trying to make Marte more available than he is? Is it coming from the Diamondbacks trying to drive up interest among all possible teams? OR, is it Bob Nightengale hallucinating from eating a bad chicken salad?
Let’s give Nightengale the benefit of the doubt, and assume the Diamondbacks are willing to trade Marte. It makes some sense given that the Diamondbacks should be able to get some excellent, ML-ready young talent if they move Marte who is about to get his 10-5 rights in 2026 (making him untradeable unless he asks for a trade or agrees to one with heavy compensation). Marte is owed up to $103 million on his deal which will take him to his age 37 season (assuming he picks up his $11.5M option in 2031), which is maybe a bit steep for a smaller market club like the Diamondbacks to commit to.
With that said, let me be abundantly clear: there is ZERO reason to legitimately expect the Guardians to commit to paying a 32 year-old player $103 million. If we go by past precedent, there is absolutely no shot that they make that kind of commitment. Heck, I’m not even sure they will do the very obvious move of making sure Jose Ramirez never plays in anything but a Guardians’ uniform. I am not trying to say this trade WILL happen, but that it SHOULD be pursued by the Guardians in a manner contrary to everything I know about them.
Marte has a career 121 wRC+ (140 wRC+ against LHP and 112 vs. RHP). Over the past three seasons, Marte has a 140 wRC+ (16.7/11.2 K/BB%) and for his career has been an excellent second baseman by Defensive Runs Saved (+29) and above average there by Outs Above Average (+7). In 2025, he put up some of his best numbers at average exit velocity, hard-hit rate and swinging-strike rate and his BEST numbers by pulled-fly-ball rate, max exit velocity and bat speed. He stands as good a chance as any player in baseball of continuing to be 4-win player for the next 3-4 years when we look at his metrics.
A three-year run with Ketel Marte and Jose Ramirez batting 2nd and 3rd in the Guardians’ lineup automatically makes the Guardians one of the most formidable tops of the lineups in MLB. Every fan who has complained that the team hasn’t surrounded Jose Ramirez with enough help in his pursuit of a title would immediately have nothing to complain about. Perhaps most importantly, the Guardians have one of the best fitting assets to offer for Marte in first round draft pick Travis Bazzana. Look, I love Bazzana and firmly believe in him. But, Bazzana’s top tier outcome is to become what Marte is now. If you can get three years of 4-5 win Marte (a gamble, for sure, but no more than any prospect is a gamble), this is a swap a team trying to end a 78-year World Series drought should absolutely consider.
I don’t want to go too much further down the road of what a potential Marte trade would look like, as it inevitably makes someone mad because we can’t know how each team evaluates each player. Also, as I have said, I have no hope or expectation that Cleveland will even consider this trade. But, I do think that Bazzana and another, great ML-ready prospect arm has a chance to get this deal done. Again, it won’t happen, but Cleveland would have the resources to do it as much as any team does (which is certainly not the case when they puruse free agents).
Sometimes, even though you know it does no earthly good, you have to cast your wish upon a star. For me, that star is Ketel Marte, and that’s why I wrote this pointless column about something the Guardians will never do.
