Marte scares the bajeezus out of me. I don't think his swing is special, I don't think his defense is anything more than mediocre, and I don't trust his ability to hit .300, which is basically his ONLY skill. Dude walks to first with the willingness of a pirate with dual peg legs, and while he's fast (6+ triples each of the last 2 years) he's not fast enough (Taylor and Miller are both better and faster) - AND he doesn't hit doubles like he should. I like Taylor's centrifugal swing to hold up, and he can both walk more and steal at least as well as Marte.
Now, he was the youngest hitter in the Southern League by a full year. It was an older year for the Southern League, but even with that it's a good stat to be a young hitter and successful.
But Marte is the 3rd SS. If he has value in a trade instead of Miller or Taylor, fine. Move him. Marte needs to walk more or hit for more power. If he walks more, maybe he can Jose Vidro a pretty nice career together - except Vidro had 15-20 HR power, which is about 15 more than Marte.
And we have a guy playing 2B who will be there a while.
And we have two other dudes ahead of Marte at SS, both of whom play the position better (maybe Marte will get as good as Miller, but Miller has other skills Marte can't touch. Ketel has an isolated walk rate of .039. 40 points of patience won't get you anywhere if your best power year is a .102 isolated power. He HAS to hit .300.
And we just traded a switch-hitting, iffy defender at SS who broke a 40 year old MWL power record and exceeded what Marte was able to do at basically every level of the minors while being a year or so older per level.
I don't have time to find out what Marte can grow into. If someone else can find a place for him and he can get a decent career somewhere else, I welcome him to it. For me, I bet on the pair of Miller and Taylor and let Marte be part of a package to get someone I CAN use. Someone who has more than one tenuous baseball skill. :)
~G
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