Mariners Rumors: Reason for stalled Ketel Marte trade talks with D-backs revealed

Back when Ketel Marte was on the trade market, insiders were implying the Arizona Diamondbacks would only move him for young, controllable pitching. The Seattle Mariners, though, reportedly found themselves weighing whether to trade young second baseman Cole Young.

This is according to a Monday story from Adam Jude of The Seattle Times, who characterized the Mariners' approach to including Young in a trade not as reluctance but as outright "resistance."

As we discussed in the wake of the report, this puts a whole new spin on the faith that the Mariners organization has in Young. It also changes what we thought we knew about Marte's market.

New report sheds light on Mariners' pursuit of Ketel Marte

The Marte sweepstakes really kicked up in the early weeks of December 2025, when speculation that the three-time All-Star could move gave way to concrete reporting that he would under the right circumstances.

To wit, Bob Nightengale of USA Today tabbed Marte as the "biggest star who is a realistic candidate to be traded." The D-backs purportedly believed the time was right to part ways, and then there was their "desperate need for pitching."

This is when the Mariners got involved, per Jon Heyman of the New York Post:

As exciting as this all was, the Mariners actually bringing their erstwhile prospect back home always felt a little too good to be true.

It would have required taking on the $92 million Marte was still owed, a big ask at a time when the Mariners had just committed $92.5 million to Josh Naylor. And if the D-backs would really only move him for pitching, well, that just plain presented a problem. Bryan Woo, Logan Gilbert, George Kirby and Bryce Miller ostensibly fit the bill for what Arizona wanted, but all four were basically off-limits.

This is not, however, to say that the new Young wrinkle comes as a surprise.

He always seemed like a sensible deal-sweetener in a mega-trade for Marte, as he could have stepped right into his shoes at second base upon arriving in the dessert. And with club control through 2031, he could have stayed there for a while.

What we still don't know is what else the D-backs wanted from the Mariners in trade talks. A straight Marte-for-Young swap was never going to be good enough. And if Seattle also put a red line at their core MLB starters, it would stand to reason that Arizona would have insisted on top prospects Kade Anderson, Ryan Sloan and/or Jurrangelo Cijntje, who was still in the organization at the time.

The book on all this is closed now. The D-backs took Marte off the market in early January, and the Mariners filled their infield need when they dealt for Brendan Donovan. As such, there will be no revisitation of talks.

It could prove to be an "all's well that ends well" saga for Seattle. As talented as Marte is, he's also getting older. Donovan is in his prime, and Young may be on the verge of his after an offseason glow-up that has 'em buzzing in Peoria.

Still, you know how they say "sometimes the best trades are the ones you don't make?" That isn't always true, and the Mariners will have some explaining to do if their hardline stance on Marte blows up in their face.