Reds' buzz around Ketel Marte is loud but this D-backs trade match actually fits

As the rumor mill begins to heat up, we see some smoke starting to develop around stars who could find themselves on the trade block. One such player is Arizona Diamondbacks infielder Ketel Marte, who could be on the outs in the desert thanks to his club's dire need for starting pitching and desire to shed payroll. With a surplus of starting pitchers, could he land with the Cincinnati Reds?

Marte is a big bat, and his 2026 salary is relatively affordable at $16 million, but there's a problem. The five-year, $116.5 million extension he signed earlier this season is heavily backloaded. That means the Reds would get stuck paying the premium in his twilight years, and at present, he's already a declining defender with a questionable positional fit. For all those reasons, the Reds would be wise to stay away.

With that said, there could be a non-Marte target on the Diamondbacks' roster who makes sense for Cincinnati, even if such a deal would be on a much smaller scale. The Reds need to tighten up their outfield defense, and another left-handed bat certainly wouldn't hurt, so taking a run at Jake McCarthy could make sense for both sides.

The Reds should forget about Diamondbacks star Ketel Marte and instead turn their attention to his teammate, Jake McCarthy

The Reds want to be a defensive-minded team. That was the motivation behind shifting Noelvi Marte to right field and acquiring Ke'Bryan Hayes. Defense is something that Terry Francona values a lot, but so far, he's only had one year to put his fingerprints on the roster.

Cincinnati has yet to ascend to the stratosphere of an elite defensive unit. The club ranked 16th in team outs above average in 2025, with 2 OAA. By fielding run value, the team's -7 mark came in 20th. In more conventional metrics, they also struggled. The Reds' .985 fielding percentage ranked 21st, and they made the 11th most errors in the league with 87.

McCarthy could help solve those woes. With experience at all three outfield spots, McCarthy could slide into center at least part-time and bump TJ Friedl to left. McCarthy only logged 109 innings in center this year, posting 0 OAA, but with a larger sample of 499.1 innings in 2024, he recorded an impressive 4 OAA.

Friedl, meanwhile, has been hit or miss with the glove. In 2025, he recorded 1 OAA over 1295 innings, but in nearly half that time in 2024, that number came in at a much more concerning -5. Having McCarthy roam center and repositioning Friedl in left could then have a domino effect of improving two positions at the same time.

The issue with McCarthy, of course, is the bat. He's been mostly a part-time player, who, as a left-handed bat, avoids southpaws, over his career, and the offensive results have been mixed. Essentially, he's been following an even-odd trend over the last four seasons, where he's been slightly above-average offensively in even years and a good deal below average offensively in odd years.

His best year was 2022, when he posted a 116 wRC+. He followed that up with a mark of 78 in 2023, and then a 110 performance in 2024, and finally, he hit a low point of 60 in 2025.

He doesn't bring much in the way of home run power, never topping eight dingers in his career, but he has some gap power to generate doubles, as evidenced by his career .121 ISO. Lastly, he brings speed to the bases with 80 total steals over the last four seasons.

McCarthy wouldn't be an exciting pick-up, but he could be a useful one. The Reds are going to have trouble finding a big bat that fits into their budget, so why not go all-in on run prevention and take a strength and make it into an overwhelming force that the opposition has to reckon with? When you're working with a tight budget, sometimes being creative and finding undervalued solutions is what it takes to win. McCarthy could help Nick Krall and the Reds do just that.