Yankees Potential Trade Target: Ketel Marte

The Yankees have a delicate task this offseason to upgrade the offense if they are indeed serious about improving on 2025’s disappointing finish. With multiple positions to address, potentially limited funds to do so and a lack of true difference makers outside of Kyle Tucker, the front office might have to get creative in their roster building and allocation of funds. Simply running it back with the same offense is unlikely to produce improved results, so barring a pursuit of Tucker, the likeliest avenue to increasing the offensive firepower might have to come via trade. If they position themselves as active players in the trade market, it would be difficult to find a more immediate upgrade than Ketel Marte.

2025 Statistics: 126 games, 556 PA, .283/.376/.517, 28 HR, 72 RBI, 145 wRC+, +1 Outs Above Average, 4.6 fWAR

2026 FanGraphs Depth Charts Projections: 147 games, 637 PA, .280/.364/.494, 27 HR, 84 RBI, 136 wRC+, 4.7 fWAR

Contract Status: Entering second year of six-year, $116.5 million extension signed 4/2/25. Owed $102.5 million over remainder of contract including $5 million deferred from 2025 and $11.5 million player option for 2031. Free agent following 2031 season if player option is picked up.

Over the last three seasons, Marte has been the very best second baseman in the league, and it’s not particularly close.

Marte is about as well-rounded a player as there is in the league. He hits for power and average. He walks at an above-average clip and has never posted a strikeout rate above 19 percent in any of his 11 big league seasons. He hits the ball as consistently hard as anyone, his top-end exit velocity putting him in the same company as Judge and Ohtani. He’s considerably better than league average in whiff and chase rates. He won’t let you down with the glove, turning in solid-if-not-spectacular performances at the keystone.

Despite entering his age-32 season, there are signs he can stave off the normal aging curve decline longer than the average player. His average bat speed has actually increased in each of the last three seasons, and at 78.5 mph when batting from the right side was third in baseball ahead of even Aaron Judge. He just posted the lowest ground ball rate of his career and set a new career-high in the proportion of his batted balls that are pulled in the air at 23.5-percent. His zone contact rate has remained above 84-percent in each of the last three seasons — comfortably better than league average — and he continues to be one of the most consistent hitters against the fastball. Normally, you would expect bat speed to decline, leading to drops in pull rate, fly ball rate, zone contact rate, and production against the fastball, but we’ve seen none of that from Marte since turning 30.

He has even come into his own defensively over the last three seasons, his 10 Outs Above Average placing him seventh among qualified second basemen. It’s true that injuries have played a significant role in his career, Marte appearing in over 140 games just three times, and he’s probably ticketed to miss a month per season from here out. His sprint speed has also declined in each of the last two seasons, but both these concerns feel somewhat minor relative to the overwhelming upside he presents when on the field. All of this paints a picture of a player still firmly in his prime. Indeed, the projection systems expect him to remain elite in 2026, FanGraphs’ Depth Charts pegging him to retain his crown as the best second baseman in MLB by wRC+ (136) and fWAR (4.7).

If this sounds like a player who would be difficult to pry away from their current club, that’s because he will be. You simply do not find this combination of production and affordable team control on the open market. With an average annual value hit of just over $20 million across the next five seasons, Marte is significantly more affordable than the projections for the other pair of top-end middle infielders hitting the market this winter and next in Bo Bichette and Jazz Chisholm Jr. Yes, age is not on Marte’s side relative to that pair, but he has been the far superior superior player over the course of their three careers. And that’s before even getting into his actual availability.

Diamondback’s GM Mike Hazen acknowledged that they were fielding offers as a matter of due diligence, but that a trade of Marte remained highly unlikely given the desire to contend in 2026. Arizona boasted three of the top 24 most valuable position players in 2025 between Marte, Corbin Carroll, and Geraldo Perdomo, and that is not a core you would expect a contending team to break up just two years removed from a World Series appearance. Obviously, 2025 was a lost year with Arizona dealing Eugenio Suárez, Josh Naylor, Merrill Kelly, and Shelby Miller away around the deadline, and even then they weren’t that far away from sneaking in as the final Wild Card. It is likely those aforementioned trades away that have in part spurred on these rumors of a continued selloff in Arizona, but all signs point to the D-Backs making a renewed push with the current core in 2026.

That being said, if Marte is dealt this winter, there are not many teams who line up better in terms of respective needs than the Yankees. Arizona are said to be targeting controllable, MLB-ready starting pitching, and the Yankees are one of the better stocked clubs in this regard with guys like Cam Schlittler, Will Warren, Elmer Rodríguez, Carlos Lagrange, Bryce Cunningham, and Ben Hess all at or near the majors. It would likely require at least two of those pitchers to begin a conversation, but players of Marte’s star caliber are rarely made available and especially so with his current contract terms.

As for the Yankees, Marte would provide the perfect hedge for incumbent Jazz Chisholm Jr. departing in free agency after next season, and is one of the few players who actually represents an upgrade over Jazz. The Yankees could even kill two birds with one stone given both players have played center in the past. Marte has logged almost 1,300 career innings in center, though only three since the start of 2023 and was never a particularly good defender there. If the Yankees miss out on Tucker and Cody Bellinger, it wouldn’t be outlandish to ask Jazz to rove center, move Trent Grisham to left to address his declining sprint speed, and not lose any defensive stability at second with the capable Marte displacing Jazz from the keystone. If Jazz departs, you still have your second baseman locked up through 2031.

Given Arizona’s competitive aspirations, a trade of Marte appears to be a pipe dream. That shouldn’t preclude the Yankees from inquiring on his availability. It’s not every day you are given a chance to acquire the best player in MLB at his position, and the Yankees have the players who might just prevent Hazen from hanging up the phone.