4:40pm: Piecoro provides a full breakdown of the deal. Marte will make $14MM this season, followed by a $15MM salary in 2026, $12MM in 2027, $20MM in 2028, and $22MM for both 2029 and 2030 before the previously reported $11.5MM player option for 2031.
3:59pm: The Diamondbacks and second baseman Ketel Marte have agreed to a contract extension which runs through 2031. According to Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic, it’s worth $116.5MM but with $64MM in new money. Marte’s previous extension already had him locked up through 2027 with a club option for 2028. Piecoro adds that there is also a player option for the 2031 season and $46MM in deferred money. Per Jesse Rogers of ESPN, the 2031 player option is worth $11.5MM. Rogers adds that escalators could allow Marte to earn $149.5MM over the course of the deal and a five-team no-trade clause. That clause will soon become moot when Marte gets 10-and-5 rights early in the 2026 season. Mike Rodriguez reported last night that the two sides were discussing a new contract.
The news surely comes as a delight to fans in Arizona. The face of the Diamondbacks franchise first flashed superstar potential back in 2019, when he was an All-Star and finished fourth in NL MVP voting after slashing .329/.389/.592 (150 wRC+) in 144 games. In the years since then, he’s generally been an above-average player but not necessarily a superstar, slashing .275/.347/.462 with a wRC+ of 118 from 2020 to 2023. That narrative changed in 2024, however, as Marte rediscovered his MVP-caliber form during his age-30 season with a phenomenal .292/.372/.560 (151 wRC+) slash line that earned Marte his first career Silver Slugger award, a second All-Star appearance, and a third place finish in MVP voting behind Shohei Ohtani and Francisco Lindor.
That’s the sort of elite production that makes for a phenomenal building block, so it’s not exactly a surprise that Arizona brass were interested in extended Marte’s stay with the club and making him a Diamondback for life. The club has often been aggressive about extending its top players under Mike Hazen, with this latest deal for Marte standing as the ninth extension the club has signed a player to since he took over baseball operations in fall of 2016. It’s also the third of 2025, joining agreements the club reached with shortstop Geraldo Perdomo and reliever Justin Martinez during Spring Training.
More notably, it’s also the third extension of Marte’s career. His first came back in 2018 when he was a pre-arbitration player. The switch-hitter was guaranteed $24MM by that first deal, which ran through the end of his expected team control window but also afforded the Diamondbacks two club option years on what otherwise would’ve been Marte’s first two years of free agency. Marte’s second deal came about just before the 2022 season began, ahead of his final year before those options would’ve kicked in. That deal overwrote those two option years and guaranteed Marte $76MM for the 2023 through 2027 seasons, and also included a club option for the 2028.
The second deal ended up covering just two seasons, as it has now already been overwritten to extend Marte’s stay in Arizona into at least 2030, with a player option that could push the deal into 2031. Given the fact that Marte was already under team control through the end of his age-34 season, it’s at least somewhat surprising that the Diamondbacks would decide to commit to their second baseman’s mid-30s this far ahead of time. After all, the club very easily could’ve waited to see how Marte would perform over the next two or three seasons before opening discussions with Marte prior to the 2028 season, when they would likely exercise their club option over his services.
With that being said, the deal appears to not only extend Arizona’s years of control over their star, but also restructures his existing contract. Marte was slated to earn $50.8MM over the next three seasons on his existing contract. That number drops to just $41MM with his new deal, saving the club nearly $10MM over the next three seasons and $5.6MM in 2025 alone. That also does not factor in the reported $46MM in deferred money in the deal, which could cut down the amount of money owed to Marte in the short-term even further.
More to come.
