The Diamondbacks are once again hearing trade noise around Ketel Marte, after a report said the 32-year-old second baseman continues to frustrate parts of the organization by taking days off. The timing matters because Arizona still could move him before the early-August deadline.
That is why Marte’s name is circulating now. Arizona tried to trade him during the winter, and Boston was among the teams that discussed a deal with the Diamondbacks this offseason, only for the talks to fall apart when the sides could not agree. Marte remains one of the more familiar names on Arizona’s roster, but the idea that he could still be dealt has not gone away.
The criticism lands in a strange place because Marte also just reminded Arizona what he can do when he is on the field. He sat last week when Shohei Ohtani and the Los Angeles Dodgers faced the Diamondbacks, then came back the next day and hit a walk-off homer. That sequence made the frustration easy to say out loud and harder to resolve inside the clubhouse.
Marte’s situation has also been colored by injury history, which helps explain why the Diamondbacks have spent time considering whether to keep listening if another team comes forward. But the latest report suggests the issue is not only availability; it is also how the organization views his day-to-day choices. That is what makes the trade chatter feel more immediate than a routine rumor.
For Arizona, the open question is no longer whether Marte has drawn interest. It is whether the Diamondbacks act on it before the early-August deadline, or whether they keep the player who can miss a game one night and win it the next.
