There have been rumors about Ketel Marte being available this offseason. That would be a great get for the Texas Rangers as they look to bounce back after two lackluster years following their World Series Championship in 2023.
Pros and Cons of a Ketel Marte Trade for the Rangers
Marte is a top-tier player and a back-to-back All-Star with the Diamondbacks, so acquiring him won’t be cheap.
Pros
The Rangers’ brass has said they are still looking to be competitive and return to the World Series. They have a good duo of pitchers in Nathan Eovaldi and Jacob deGrom, highlighting the pitching staff, along with Corey Seager holding it down on the offensive end.
Seager and Eovaldi are still in the primes of their careers, while deGrom showed he is still one of the best pitchers in the league with his first All-Star appearance in Texas.
None of these guys is getting any younger, so it would make sense for the Rangers to want to make the most of the window that they have right now and give Seager some help on the offensive side. Besides Seager, there is the newly acquired Brandon Nimmo as well as Wyatt Langford, who is coming off a 20-20 season.
Marte can also slot in at second base or the left-field corner spot, as the Rangers need to replace Adolis Garcia, who they non-tendered, and Marcus Semien, who they traded for Nimmo.
The final reason for the Rangers to acquire Ketel Marte is so they don’t have to face him anymore. In his last nine games against the Rangers, he is hitting .324 with five home runs and 14 RBIs.
Cons
The big reason that the Rangers would probably not trade for Marte is the cost of what it would take to get him. They would probably have to part ways with their top prospect, Sebastian Walcott, who is the No. 6 in baseball according to MLB.com.
I don’t really see the Rangers parting with him, and other than him, they don’t have any other prospects in the top 100. It appears the Rangers lack the ammunition to make a deal with the Diamondbacks, as they face teams with stronger farm systems.
Another reason is that the Rangers want to cut payroll this year and have shown that by non-tendering Adolis Garcia and Jonah Heim, both of whom played large roles on the 2023 World Series team. Marte doesn’t have a huge cap hit, coming in at $16 million this year, and he is owed $102.5 million over the next five years.
This move wouldn’t align with the way the Rangers’ front office has talked and would go against what they are doing.
Last Word
I don’t think the Rangers will trade for Ketel Marte if the Diamondbacks decide to move him. They want to cut payroll, and adding Marte does the opposite.
It would be interesting to see the Rangers go in for Marte and push the chips in for a postseason run, but this seems like more of a year where they know what they have with the team and new Manager Skip Schumaker.
Main Photo Credits: Denis Poroy-Imagn Images
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