1:39PM: Marte and the Royals have agreed to a one-year, Main League contract, MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand studies (a number of hyperlinks). The deal can be finalized as soon as Marte passes a bodily, plus the Royals must make one other transfer to clear a 40-man roster spot.
10:06AM: 2025 was the final season of Starling Marte‘s four-year, $78MM contract with the Mets, and whereas Marte was hopeful of enjoying for a number of extra years, there hadn’t been any public buzz about his free agent market over the winter. Issues might be altering now, nevertheless, as reporter Yancen Pujols writes that the Royals are discussing a contract with Marte, a Klutch Sports activities shopper.
Now getting into his age-37 season, Marte’s tenure in New York was outlined by accidents, as he performed in solely 396 video games throughout his four-year stint. Groin issues have been the supply of most of Marte’s points, as surgical procedure on each his left and proper groin muscle groups following the 2022 season didn’t solely right the issue, because the damage resurfaced in 2023. Marte additionally missed time as a consequence of a neck pressure, migraines, and a bone bruise in his proper knee, and the Mets responded to Marte’s lower-body accidents by making him basically a full-time DH in 2025.
Marte nonetheless made 12 appearances within the outfield final 12 months, and given the Royals’ want for outfield assist, Kansas Metropolis may think about giving him barely extra time on the grass in 2026 if the 2 sides reached an settlement. After buying each the switch-hitting Isaac Collins and the right-handed hitting Lane Thomas this winter, the Royals’ major outfield appears to be like like Collins in left area, defensive specialist Kyle Isbel in middle, and Thomas and lefty-swinging Jac Caglianone maybe in a platoon state of affairs in proper area. Salvador Perez and prime prospect Carter Jensen will deal with the catching duties, and whomever isn’t behind the plate will doubtless get loads of DH at-bats.
It might add as much as one other part-time position for Marte, although there’s worth in having a veteran bat on the roster. Caglianone struggled badly in his first publicity to huge league pitching in 2025, and Thomas is coming off basically a misplaced 12 months as a consequence of accidents in 2025. Thomas’ prime season was his 28-homer marketing campaign with the Nationals in 2023, however he has posted only a 98 wRC+ over 1900 plate appearances over the past 4 seasons. Collins can be removed from a certain factor, as his spectacular 2025 rookie season with the Brewers got here regardless of some hard-contact points that have been maybe obscured by a .326 BABIP.
Marte hasn’t regarded like a real top-tier hitter since 2022, however he nonetheless managed a good .269/.331/.398 slash line and 16 homers over 699 PA through the 2024-25 seasons, translating to a 108 wRC+. Marte remains to be making arduous contact at an above-average fee, even when his energy (and his Statcast metrics on the entire) have fallen off.
Whether or not or not Marte can keep even this respectable manufacturing into his fifteenth Main League season stays to be seen, after all. It may be argued that Collins, Thomas, and doubtlessly Marte couldn’t assist however be upgrades for Ok.C. given how little the Royals have gotten from their outfield combine in the previous few years, plus Caglianone remains to be a highly-touted prospect with breakout potential.
Marte’s subsequent contract will certainly be a one-year deal value maybe just a few million {dollars} in assured cash, with most likely some bonus clauses in-built primarily based on plate appearances. The Royals’ payroll presently sits at round $149.2MM (as per RosterResource‘s estimates), which represents a modest enhance over their $139.8MM determine from 2025. This tracks with proprietor John Sherman’s feedback from October in regards to the payroll doubtless staying in the identical common vary, which naturally left the entrance workplace a little bit restricted in what they might do in pursuing wanted lineup assist.
