Diamondbacks, Ketel Marte accepts the extension

6:45 p.m.: The Diamondbacks announced the agreement.

4:40 p.m.: PIENCEORO provides complete ventilation of the agreement. Marte will earn $ 14 million this season, followed by a salary of $ 15 million in 2026, $ 12 million in 2027, $ 20 million in 2028 and $ 22 million for 2029 and 2030 before the option of $ 11.5 million previously reported for 2031. And seventh place.

3:59 p.m.: Diamondbacks and the second basic player Ketel Marte Accepted an extension of contract which takes place until 2031. According to Nick Piecoro de l’Arizona Republic, this is worth $ 116.5 million but with 64 million dollars in money. The previous extension of Marte had already locked it until 2027 with a club option for 2028. Piecoro adds that there is also a player option for the 2031 and 46 million dollars in delayed money. According to Jesse Rogers de ESPN, the player option 2031 is worth $ 11.5 mm. Rogers adds that mechanical stairs could allow Marte to win $ 149.5 million during the agreement and a team without a team of five teams. This clause will soon become theoretical when Marte obtains 10 and 5 rights at the start of the 2026 season. Mike Rodriguez reported last night that the two parties discussed a new contract.

The news is surely a pleasure for fans in Arizona. The Face of the Diamondbacks franchise for the first time flashed superstar’s potential in 2019, when it was an All-Star and finished fourth in the MVP NL vote after having reduced .329 / .389 / .592 (150 WRC +) in 144 games. During the years since then, he has generally been a player above average but not necessarily a superstar, reducing 0.275 / .347 / .462 with a WRC + from 118 from 2020 to 2023. This story changed in 2024, however, because Marte rediscovered its MVP-Calibre shape during its age season. Slash Line who earned Marte his first Silver Slugger Prize in career, a second appearance of the stars and a third place in MVP vote behind Shohei Ohtani And Francisco Lindor.

This is the kind of elite production that makes a phenomenal construction block, so it is not exactly a surprise that the Arizona in brass is interested in the stay of Marte with the club and by making a diamond for life. The club has often been aggressive to extend its best players under Mike Hazen, with this last offer for Marte Standing as a tenth extension to which the club has signed a player since he resumed baseball operations in the fall of 2016. It is also the fourth of 2025, joining the agreements that the club concluded with a short-court Geraldo Perdomolift Justin Martinezand right -handed Brandon Pfaadt.

More specifically, it is also the third extension of Marte’s career. His first returned in 2018 when he was a pre-arbitration player. The Switch Hitter was guaranteed for $ 24 million by this first transaction, which crossed the end of its expected team control window, but also offered the Diamondbacks two years of the club on what would have otherwise been the first two years of free agency. The second Marte contract occurred just before the start of the 2022 season, before its last year before these options were struggling. This agreement crushed these two years of option and guaranteed to Marte $ 76 million for seasons from 2023 to 2027, and also included a club option for the 2028.

The second agreement ended up covering only two seasons, because it has already been crushed to extend the stay of Marte in Arizona in at least 2030, with a player option which could push the agreement in 2031. Since Marte was already under the control of the team until the end of his 34 -year season, it is at least somewhat surprising that diamond diamonds would decide to commit their second baseman at medium 30 years. After all, the club could very easily have been waiting to see how Marte would occur in the next two or three seasons before opening discussions with Marte before the 2028 season, while they would probably exercise their club option on its services.

That said, the agreement does not only seem to extend the years of arizona control over their star, but also restructure its existing contract. Marte was to win $ 50.8 million in the following three seasons on its existing contract. This issue drops to only $ 41 million with its new agreement, saving the club nearly $ 10 million in the following three seasons and $ 5.6 million in only 2025. It also does not take $ 46 million of deferred money in the agreement, which could further reduce the amount of money due to Marte in the short term. Indeed, Pocketoro reports that $ 5 million from the $ 14 million due to Marte this year are deferred.

The fact that diamondbacks are looking for a restructured agreement with Marte in order to save some short -term money is understandable since the team is deeply in unexplored financial waters. According to COT baseball contracts, the club opened the 2025 season with a wage bill of nearly $ 187 million. This represents an increase of $ 24 million out of 2024, which was already the highest payroll in the history of the franchise of more than $ 30 million. The aggressiveness of the club this winter by adding Corbin Burnes and swing a job to Josh Naylor Was certainly admirable, but it has long seemed likely that the Diamondbacks probably extended the limits of the comfort zone of the owner of the Ken Kendrick club.

If Arizona faces the upper limits of its baseball operations budget, this could also explain the club’s reported insistence on the contenders for in difficulty in Southpaw Jordan Montgomery Eat at least $ 13 million in your salary of $ 25 million for 2025 in commercial talks as well as the club below its high flight this winter. Perhaps this agreement restructured with Marte will offer the club a little more financial breathing with which to work on the deadline for trade during an important season of 2025 for the club. After the current campaign, Montgomery and Naylor should be joined by Zac Gallen,, Merrill KellyAnd Eugenio Suarez Leaving for the free agency. It is many important players who will have to be signed or replaced to avoid a step back in 2026, and it is possible that today’s restructuring of the Marte agreement could also help the club fill these to come.