Starling Marte has officially been traded by the Pittsburgh Pirates. While it had long been rumored that the New York Mets and San Diego Padres were the ones that were in the lead in the sweepstakes for the outfielder, the Arizona Diamondbacks made a surprise final push, and ended up landing Marte.
Marte will be the D-Backs’ primary center fielder, with the other (Ketel) Marte moving to second base full time. Last season, Starling batted for a strong .295/.342/.503, with 23 home runs to go with 25 stolen bases. Only Mike Trout (180) and Ronald Acuna (126) had a higher wRC+ than Marte (119) while playing at least 100 games in center field.