The Boston Red Sox and their chief baseball officer Craig Breslow entered MLB’s annual Winter Meetings with a sense of optimism and even, as MLB.com reporter Ian Browne put it, “momentum.”
Leading up to the meetings, Breslow had revamped the Boston starting rotation with trades for former St. Louis Cardinals and New York Yankees righty Sonny Gray, as well as a solid back-end rotation piece in 6-foot-6, 275-pound Johan Oviedo, in a deal with the Pittsburgh Pirates.
When Boston missed out on 56-homer Philadelphia Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber, who spent the final months of the 2021 season with the Red Sox, fans and the media remained confident. After all, at the 2024 Winter Meetings, Breslow passed on signing ace left-hander Max Fried â but followed with a franchise-altering trade for another lefty, Garrett Crochet, in a deal that left the Winter Meetings crowd stunned.
This year, however â nothing. The Red Sox slinked home from Orlando, Florida, on Wednesday with the same roster they came in with.
But there is still another potential game-changing trade reported to be in the works for the Red Sox, but this one could mean that Boston must say goodbye to one of their most prized young players, who in 2021 they drafted at No. 4 overall, their highest draft pick in more than half a century.
Ketel Marte Tops All 2nd Basemen
Marcelo Mayer made his debut for the Red Sox this year, showing flashes of the potential scouts saw in him when MLB Pipeline named him 2024’s No. 1 Boston prospect. But Mayer, a 23-year-old drafted from Eastlake High School in Chula Vista, California, also struggled at the plate, managing just a .674 OPS, albeit with four home runs, in 136 plate appearances before a wrist injury cut his season short on July 24.
According to Red Sox correspondent Chris Cotillo of MassLive, however, Mayer may now play a key role in Boston’s quest to obtain three-time All-Star second baseman Ketel Marte, who has played his last nine seasons with the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Since coming over to the Diamondbacks from the Seattle Mariners â who signed him out of the Dominican Republic in 2010 for a modest $100,000 bonus â Marte has belted 168 home runs with an .851 OPS.
This season the 32-year-old Marte recorded an OPS of .893, leading all MLB second basemen by a considerable margin. Jazz Chisholm of the New York Yankees came in second at .813.
Arizona Also Wants Pitching
The Red Sox as well as several other teams remained in “exploratory” talks about a trade for Marte on Friday, per Cotillo’s report. The Red Sox are fighting to keep Mayer out of a trade package, but may be forced to relent.
Arizona is clearly targeting starting pitching in talks for Marte but also might be intrigued by young infielder Marcelo Mayer, who the Red Sox would be hesitant to give up on,” Cotillo wrote. “The Red Sox are under the belief thereâs a path to a Marte trade that would not include Mayer, but the involvement of other teams will dictate what Arizona ultimately does.”
Other reports have indicated that Arizona would also demand one or both of Boston’s highly-ranked southpaw pitching prospects, Connelly Early and Payton Tolle, in a package for Marte. The All-Star second baseman comes with five years under contract, on the six-year, $116.5 million deal he signed before this season.
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