The Mariners’ Ketel Marte obsession keeps resurfacing like a song you swore you were done listening to — and Ken Rosenthal’s note is a reminder that Seattle still hasn’t hit “skip.”
In his look at Arizona’s winter dominoes, Rosenthal again connected the Mariners to Marte and, more importantly, suggested why the pursuit hasn’t cooled: Jerry Dipoto’s continued interest “indicates that he is not deterred by the 11-year veteran’s clubhouse issues with the D-backs last season.”
That one line is doing a lot of work. The on-field fit has always been obvious. Marte is the kind of switch-hitting, impact-at-second-base presence the Mariners have chased in different forms for years — the “make the lineup scarier” archetype that changes how opponents pitch you in October.