While the Diamondbacks continue to engage with teams about a trade involving All-Star second baseman Ketel Marte, that could soon change one way or the other, with Arizona general manager Mike Hazen saying that he does not want the situation to continue indefinitely.
“We’re very likely to put an end to this shortly,” Hazen said on Tuesday.
Now, what “shortly” means is less clear.
“I haven’t figured that out yet,” Hazen said of the exact timeline. “But this isn’t going to continue to linger. We need to focus our offseason. Again, my gut this whole time was that [a trade of Marte] wasn’t going to happen, and I think it seems likely that that’s the case and we want to focus on other things we need to do.”
That’s consistent with what Hazen indicated at the Winter Meetings earlier this month when he said the New Year was a rough timetable for when the D-backs would like to have a resolution.
While he hasn’t given teams a firm deadline, Hazen said he did let those clubs they’ve been engaged with know that time is running out.
Hazen said that there had been some progress on trading Marte, but that it’s gone back and forth with it not getting “anywhere near” what Arizona would consider an acceptable package.
The Diamondbacks set out in the offseason to improve the pitching staff and have made a pair of signings with that in mind.
On the first day of the Winter Meetings, they signed right-hander Michael Soroka to a one-year, $7.5 million deal that includes performance bonuses that can raise the maximum value to $9.5 million.
Then on Dec. 19, Arizona brought right-hander Merrill Kelly back into the fold with a two-year, $40 million deal.
That doesn’t mean the D-backs’ work on the pitching staff is done, however. They still want to shore up the bullpen, particularly the back end that will be without co-closers A.J. Puk and Justin Martinez for at least the first few months of the season as both are recovering from their second Tommy John surgery.
Hazen said there are still possibilities on both the free-agent and trade markets to help them in that regard, and they could still add to the rotation if the opportunity presents itself.
The Diamondbacks also would like to add to their offense, specifically with a right-handed-hitting first base/DH type. That’s another reason they want to wrap up the Marte situation soon.
“We’re going to need to start focusing on our position-player group at some point a little more specifically,” Hazen said. “That’s the other reason to finalize what we’re doing with other players, so we have a little more direction on what we can do and what it might look like.”