The Giants spent part of last offseason kicking around a second-base upgrade, and for a while Ketel Marte was right in the middle of that conversation. In hindsight, that may have been the cleanest escape route they got all winter.
Arizona’s bizarre Monday in Boston brought the whole thing back into focus. The Diamondbacks were set to face the Red Sox, but just before first pitch Marte was placed on the restricted list and reportedly never arrived at Fenway Park. Torey Lovullo later said it was a personal matter, but this isn’t the first time Marte has vanished from the picture.
He was placed on the restricted list last year after his house was broken into and he went to the Dominican Republic. There have also been rumblings for some time that his teammates in Arizona aren’t thrilled with how he takes games off. Whatever the explanation this time, it only adds to a growing pattern around a player whose availability is becoming part of the story.
That matters because the Giants were linked to Marte before it was reported that he was on their no-trade list. Given what’s happened since, that may have saved them from a costly mistake.
Marte is still a productive player, but the shine has faded a bit. After back-to-back All-Star seasons in 2024 and 2025, he’s hitting .249/.314/.446 this year with 21 home runs and 67 runs batted in.
He has also done damage against San Francisco, including a walk-off homer, so the bat is still real. The problem is everything else around it.
He’s 32, he’s owed a lot of money, and his contract runs all the way until he can become a free agent after the 2031 season if he opts into the final year. That kind of commitment would be a heavy lift for any team, and the Giants know better than most what happens when an expensive veteran starts sliding.
That’s why this feels like a bullet dodged. San Francisco already lived through enough uncertainty at second base last season with Tyler Fitzgerald.
Casey Schmitt was viewed as a workable option, but the Giants still went into 2025 with Fitzgerald there, and it simply didn’t hold up. Looking around for help made sense.
Landing Marte would have been a different story.
Instead, the Giants kept Schmitt and signed Luis Arraez in the offseason. Arraez was later flipped for a good prospect, and Schmitt’s production before he got hurt was arguably better than Marte’s this season, all at a fraction of the cost.
There’s also the simple contrast with Willy Adames. Even while dealing with a back injury, he has tried to stay on the field.
That kind of willingness matters. If the choice is between a player you have to pull off the field and one whose commitment to showing up keeps getting questioned, the answer is pretty clear.
Marte remains a good player, and the hope is that he’s okay and things get sorted out. But for the Giants, this is one more reminder that not every big name on the market is worth the trouble.
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