ORLANDO, Fla. — Seattle Mariners executives arrived here at the MLB Winter Meeting on Sunday evening carrying a healthy dose of certainty and confidence in their roster composition and in their place in the American League West.
They will go into 2026 with largely the same core group of players that carried them to the American League Championship Series in October as planned. And barring a seismic shake-up by one of their division rivals, the M’s will be the favorites to win their second straight AL West title.
As things stand, the Mariners are planning to turn to several young players to fill out two openings in the infield. Cole Young, 22, is the favorite to open next season at second base while Ben Williamson, 25, and Colt Emerson, 20, will compete in spring training for the third-base job.
“Giving young players runway to figure things out (at the MLB level) is valuable,” general manager Justin Hollander said earlier this offseason. “You will learn things. Somebody will be better than being somebody will be worse than you think, and you can adjust on the fly.”
All that said, the Mariners entered the Winter Meetings with an open mind about potential roster upgrades and they aren’t opposed to doing “something big” this week, one source with knowledge of the club’s plans said.
Could that big move be a reunion with Ketel Marte?
The Mariners have expressed interest in the Arizona Diamondbacks’ star second baseman, sources say, though it’s not known if the Mariners have engaged in serious talks with the Diamondbacks.
At this stage, it’s more likely the Mariners are monitoring Marte’s market and gauging Arizona’s appetite for trading him.
The Mariners and Diamondbacks completed two significant trades in July to bring Josh Naylor and Eugenio Suárez to Seattle ahead of the trade deadline. So there is familiarity there, and Arizona knows the Mariners’ farm system well.
It would take a major haul — several high-end prospects, presumably — to pry Marte away from Arizona, and the Mariners have the prospect capital to swing that sort of deal, if they wanted.
Marte debuted with the Mariners as a 21-year-old in 2015, and he posted a 2.5 bWAR in 176 games in Seattle before he was traded, along with Taijuan Walker, to Arizona for Mitch Haniger, Jean Segura and Zac Curtis.
In Arizona, Marte blossomed into a three-time All-Star, and he finished third in the NL MVP voting in 2024.
He’s entering his age-32 season, and this past April he signed a seven-year, $116.5 million contract extension — $46 million of it deferred — through 2030.
He’s owed $91 million over the next five years, and he’s scheduled to earn $15 million in 2026.
Arizona general manager Mike Hazen is an enviable position having no impetus or motivation to trade Marte. They are perfectly fine with keeping him on their roster to start the season. But given the D-backs’ glaring need for starting pitching and other upgrades, trading Marte may be a logical way to fill those needs.
“I have received incoming — a ton of conversations — on him every single year since he’s become a superstar,” Hazen told MLB Network Radio on Monday.
There is a growing perception that the D-backs would move on from Marte, who had some disciplinary issues this past season, in a cost-cutting move. Hazen wasn’t certain why it has grown into the current narrative.
“It’s hard for me to understand what it is,” Hazen said. “I think he’s a superstar player. He’s on a good deal relative to the industry. I think that makes him very attractive to a lot of teams that think they can just get this guy and that we are in this position because where we are a .500 team and whatever they think we are at financially and it spurs some of the calls.”
Hazen takes all the calls on Marte from opposing teams.
“When I don’t just shut down talks on Day 1 with any of these (GMs) then it becomes the narrative,” he said. “What I hear about teams that are interested and teams we have talked to, there are reports about teams that we have talked that we haven’t even talked to.”
One red flag surrounding Marte is his three-day disappearance from the team after the MLB All-Star Game this summer.
Marte went to the Dominican Republic following his appearance in the All-Star Game and the missed the Diamondbacks’ first three games of the second half. A complicating factor in that drama: Marte’s house in Phoenix was burglarized during the All-Star break, and he said $400,000 worth of property was stolen.
He later acknowledged that his trip to the Dominican Republic was planned before he knew about the break-in, and an Arizona Republic report later detailed frustrations from teammates about Marte’s requests for regular days off throughout the season, even as the team was trying to stay alive in the NL wild card.
Marte apologized during an August media gathering.
“Initially, the intent was to come back on Thursday and be with my team and practice,” Marte said at the time. “I want to publicly apologize for not backing that up. I mean, obviously due to the circumstance of my situation, I got frustrated and was in a bad spot. But I truly want to apologize for my teammates and everybody else that is supporting the team.”