ESPN's enticing Mariners trade pitch could unfortunately be at odds with reality

ESPN’s latest Winter Meetings thought experiment is catnip for Seattle Mariners fans: pry Ketel Marte away from Arizona and drop him into Seattle’s infield for a second tour. On paper, Alden Gonzalez is absolutely right. That kind of move is exactly the sort of shove that could push the M’s from Game 7 heartbreak into their first-ever World Series berth. 

He even lays out a path that feels almost painless: dangle one of Seattle’s young middle infielders (Cole Young, Michael Arroyo, Felnin Celesten) and somehow manage to keep Colt Emerson out of the deal. For a fanbase that just watched a magical run fall one win short, that’s the dream scenario: trade from a “surplus,” keep the crown jewel, roll out one of the best second basemen in baseball for the next half-decade.

ESPN’s Ketel Marte trade dream for Mariners collides with harsh reality

There’s just one problem: nothing about the actual Marte market suggests the Mariners are anywhere near the center of it.

Bob Nightengale of USA Today reports that Arizona is indeed open for business on Marte — operators standing by and all that — but their shopping list is clear: pitching, and lots of it. Referencing that the D-backs just spent big, missed the playoffs, and are staring at a 2026 rotation without Zac Gallen, Merrill Kelly, and with Corbin Burnes shelved for much of the year. Naturally, the teams popping up around Marte are the ones with arms to spare: Boston, Detroit, Tampa Bay. Not Seattle. 

Jon Morosi of MLB Network adds two more familiar big spenders to the mix: the Phillies and Blue Jays, both of whom have already placed a call and have the financial muscle and prospect depth to make life uncomfortable for everyone else. 

Then there’s the Seattle side of the ledger. Adam Jude of The Seattle Times has been pretty blunt: Arizona’s GM has stated a Marte trade is unlikely, and it’s even more unlikely that if he is moved, he’s headed back to the Pacific Northwest. A big reason why? The contract and the calendar. Marte, 32, is owed roughly $91 million through his age-36 season — a totally reasonable number for an elite second baseman, but directly at odds with how the current Mariners front office likes to build a roster. 

Seattle has one of baseball’s deepest farm systems, and it’s especially loaded with infielders. Internally, the guiding philosophy has been pretty consistent: don’t clog future lanes with aging vets on long commitments. Committing five years to a win-now second baseman who’ll be deep into his 30s by the end is exactly the sort of thing this group usually avoids.

You can see that tension already in the Jorge Polanco discussion. As much as the Mariners would love to run it back after how vital he was in 2025, keeping him almost certainly means paying into his mid-30s as well — and likely not on a discount, given his platform season. If they’re already queasy about doing that for a known clubhouse fit who just helped them reach an ALCS, what are the odds they’ll go even bigger, in both dollars and prospect cost, for Marte?

So yes, the ESPN pitch is intoxicating. Marte in a Mariners uniform again would be a blast, and it makes all the sense in the world on a whiteboard. But once you factor in what Arizona actually wants, who’s really in the bidding, and how Seattle has operated under this front office, the fantasy starts to crumble.

For now, Ketel Marte to the Mariners looks less like the next logical step — and more like the kind of offseason daydream that stays on the trade-machine screen.