The Diamondbacks are known to be reducing payroll from 2026’s franchise-record levels as they head into the 2027 season, but they’re still keeping tabs on some big names. Ken Rosenthal, Will Sammon and Katie Woo of The Athletic report that Arizona has done its due diligence on Nippon Professional Baseball star Teruaki Sato, who is available to MLB clubs after being posted by NPB’s Hanshin Tigers.
Sato, 27, is the reigning Triple Crown winner in NPB. He belted 39 home runs this past season (and hit 40 in 2025) while slashing .303/.386/.609 in 614 plate appearances. It’s the most productive season of Sato’s career. He’s steadily improved throughout his 20s in NPB, debuting with a slightly better-than-average line as a 22-year-old rookie back in 2021 but emerging as one of Japan’s best offensive players over the past two seasons.
The D-backs have a known preference for left-handed bats. Sato has been a third baseman in Japan, though he’s dabbled in the outfield corners as well. Third base is spoken for by Nolan Arenado in Arizona — but there’s been talk of Arenado potentially playing some first base. Some scouts around the league feel Sato is athletic enough to shift to the outfield and become a better defender there than he is at the hot corner, however. Arizona has some uncertainty in the outfield, where inexperienced former top prospects Jordan Lawlar and Ryan Waldschmidt are set to take regular reps in conjunction with veterans Corbin Carroll and Lars Nootbaar.
Sato figures to command a fairly heavy annual value over a multi-year deal. MLBTR predicted a five-year, $80MM contract on our annual Top 50 Free Agent rankings. Other outlets have predicted he could sign for north of $100MM. That sort of contract certainly doesn’t dovetail with the D-backs’ goal of scaling back payroll, but The Athletic trio notes that the front office routinely keeps an eye on the market for top-end stars given owner Ken Kendrick’s penchant for abruptly changing his mind on such matters. That was the case two winters ago when the Diamondbacks stunned the industry by signing Corbin Burnes, and it was a similar story in 2015 when the Snakes signed Zack Greinke.
A look at MLBTR’s Payroll Tracker shows that the D-backs could sign Sato without reprising last year’s record level of spending. Ethan Hullihen projects a $158.584MM payroll for the Snakes, which is already considerably shy of the $193MM level at which they ended the ’26 season. And, with Arizona also open to the idea of trading Ketel Marte, it’s possible that $158MM figure falls precipitously. Marte is being paid $13.75MM this coming season and has a total of five years and $89.25MM remaining on his contract.
It also bears mentioning that the D-backs could look to backload a contract for Sato or any other multi-year free agent. Arenado’s contract is off the books after this coming season. Merrill Kelly will be a free agent, too, unless he reaches 170 innings and triggers a $12MM vesting option (although if he pitches well enough to merit 170 frames, the D-backs probably won’t complain about that additional year triggering). Nootbaar is also entering his final season of club control. His salary isn’t set yet, but MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects him for $6.3MM in his final year of arbitration. That Arenado/Nootbaar/Kelly trio will cost the D-backs around $33.3MM this year and nothing in ’27, which lends some credence to the idea that a slightly backloaded free agent deal could make sense.
While Sato might be purely a matter of due diligence at this time, general manager Mike Hazen wasn’t shy about his desire to add to the rotation when speaking to the Arizona Republic’s Nick Piecoro at the GM Meetings yesterday. Hazen acknowledged “pitching focus in everything we’re doing in trades” and called deepening his rotation a “priority.”
Entering 2027, the D-backs will have Corbin Burnes, Eduardo Rodriguez, Ryne Nelson, Brandon Pfaadt and Kelly locked into rotation spots. Burnes barely pitched this season due to 2025 Tommy John surgery though, and Nelson missed considerable time with a flexor injury. Pfaadt struggled enough that he was optioned to Triple-A at one point, and while he rebounded with a strong finish, he hasn’t yet found the consistency the Diamondbacks hoped when signing him to an early-career, $45MM contract extension. Kelly, meanwhile, struggled through his worst season since returning from the KBO back in 2019.
Suffice it to say, there’s plenty of uncertainty in the group. Add in that the D-backs are losing both Michael Soroka and Zac Gallen to free agency, and there’s even more of a need for innings. Gallen certainly didn’t pitch well in 2026, but he accounted for 105 1/3 innings. Soroka pitched 116.
The focus on pitching speaks to what the D-backs might try to recoup if they indeed move Marte. Though he’s one of the team’s best players, Marte is coming off a relative down season that again featured some off-field drama; Marte was a no-show for a game at Fenway Park this summer, leading the team to place him on the restricted list. Manager Torey Lovullo was as surprised as anyone by Marte’s absence and tabbed it a “personal issue” later that night. The team, however, eventually moved Marte to the injured list with a knee issue. Lovullo and Hazen both spoke openly after the season about Marte’s repeated absences and maturity issues, and the Diamondbacks’ willingness to listen to trade offers has been a poorly kept secret in the weeks since the season concluded.
[Related: The Best Fits for a Ketel Marte Trade]
If a Marte trade does come together, it might not happen all that quickly. MLB Network’s Jon Morosi suggested in a segment this morning that it could be more of a post-lockout timeline — if a trade happens at all. The free agent market is rife with second base options, including Brandon Lowe, Luis Arraez, Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Gleyber Torres.
The trade market has options beyond Marte; names like Jackson Holliday, Matt Shaw and Zack Gelof could all be kicked around the market. The looming lockout and uncertainty regarding the next collective bargaining agreement also plays a role. Interested teams will surely want to know what sort of financial guardrails are in place for the next five years when weighing a potential trade for a supremely talented but mercurial 33-year-old.
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