Diamondbacks not close on any trades, but young players are generating interest

The Arizona Diamondbacks are “not close” on any particular trades, including for second baseman Ketel Marte, general manager Mike Hazen said on Thursday.

But Hazen said the D-backs have received a lot of interest from teams inquiring about Arizona’s young players, the ones who worked their way up to the major leagues in 2026.

The Diamondbacks have a complex offseason ahead of them. They need to decide whether to trade Marte (who has a no-trade clause) after another season with a no-show distraction. The Athletic’s Mitch Bannon reported that the Toronto Blue Jays have checked in on Ketel Marte, as the Diamondbacks have entered a second straight offseason listening to offers.

Arizona’s payroll is expected to decrease to a degree after it set a franchise record in 2026. And the D-backs are still looking to field a contending team after three straight seasons of narrowly missing the postseason.

Hazen has suggested that a shakeup in some form is coming after the D-backs have kept their core together from the 2023 World Series run.

“We are not one player or two players away from winning the World Series,” Hazen told Arizona Sports’ Burns & Gambo. “We have a series of things that we’re probably going to need to get done this offseason … I believe in continuity. I feel like it’s benefited us. I also think at some point we all need to look at what change could be effective.

“The payroll is probably not going to be the level it’s at, so that has to be some level of focus for us. … We need to be open-minded to where that may take us. That could involve trades. I’m not close on anything right now to be able to tell you that something is imminent or going to happen, or even that far down the line, specifically anywhere.

“But we’ve had some initial conversations about a lot of players on the team and rightly so, mostly around our younger players. We’ve gotten a lot of attention on those guys you saw trickle up from Triple-A to the big leagues this year that came up in their first run or second run in the big leagues. That’s where the majority of my time has been spent.”

The D-backs had eight players make their MLB debuts in 2026:

• OF Ryan Waldschmidt
• OF Tommy Troy
• INF Jose Fernandez
• INF LuJames Groover
• RHP Jose Cabrera
• RHP Gerardo Carrillo
• LHP Mitch Bratt
• LHP Kohl Drake

Tim Tawa, Tyler Locklear, Brandyn Garcia, Juan Burgos and Adrian Del Castillo were among those who spent some time in Triple-A.

The Diamondbacks need pitching depth, while Hazen suggested there is some redundancy positionally that could present opportunity.

“I personally feel like we’ve done some of our better work in those areas,” Hazen said. “We definitely fall in love with our younger players and dream of the upside and what they’re gonna be and and in some cases, I’ve traded players that have gone on to do some of those things. But we’ve gotten very good players in return.”

Hazen has had success dealing young players either from the major league roster or nearing their debuts in the past.

Catcher Gabriel Moreno just made First Team All-MLB, and Hazen acquired him and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. for Daulton Varsho after the 2022 season. Varsho hit 27 home runs in 2022 for Arizona, but the move landed the D-backs their starting catcher moving forward and another key piece for their World Series run.

Arizona already had young, left-handed outfielders in Corbin Carroll, Jake McCarthy and Alek Thomas, among others.

In 2019, the D-backs traded top prospect Jazz Chisholm Jr. for pitcher Zac Gallen. Chisholm debuted the following season and has done some impressive things in MLB, while Gallen became the ace of the staff and an All-Star.

Arizona had middle infield depth with Marte and Nick Ahmed, along with Geraldo Perdomo making his way.

There is a flip side, of course, most recently with Arizona trading Blaze Alexander for relief help in Kade Strowd last offseason. Things can change, but one year in, Alexander was very good in Baltimore while Strowd was a non factor in Arizona.

Waldschmidt was someone the D-backs were reluctant to move at the trade deadline, as he was the club’s top-ranked prospect and someone who produced exciting moments during an up-and-down rookie season.

Hazen said there are no untouchables in that group.

“I think we have holes in our roster,” Hazen said. “We have holes at the corner positions, depending on what happens with Nolan (Arenado moving to first base), and we lost the front side of our bullpen to free agency. Being able to have guys with that level of redundancy, even though they’re all very good players … we need to be very good at deciding who are the best guys to be able to move on from if we have to in order to get what we want. There’s no untouchable in that area.”

Hazen said he is not overly concerned with getting his whole offseason done by Dec. 1, when the collective bargaining agreement will expire and an expected lockout begins.

But he said the D-backs have to deal with market dynamics, noting he is already aggressive in making outgoing calls.

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