Royals Designate Starling Marte For Assignment

The Royals announced that infielders Vinnie Pasquantino and Maikel Garcia have both been reinstated from the 10-day injured list. The club also recalled left-hander Connor Thomas. In corresponding moves for those three, they have optioned infielder Josh Rojas and right-hander Jose Cuas to Triple-A Omaha while outfielder Starling Marte has been designated for assignment.

Kansas City signed the 37-year-old Marte in March, giving him a $1MM guarantee with $2MM in bonuses. The Royals have had a very unproductive outfield for years and hoped Marte could be a cheap upgrade. He is a few years removed from his prime but was still an above-average bat in recent seasons. Over the 2024 and 2025 campaigns, he made 699 plate appearances with the Mets and hit .269/.331/.398 for a wRC+ of 108. He stole 23 bases in that time as well.

Unfortunately, the bet hasn’t paid off. Marte has stepped to the plate 158 times this year and produced a lackluster .242/.298/.314 line. That leads to a 71 wRC+, indicating he has been 29% worse than the league average hitter. He does have two stolen bases but has also been caught twice.

The Royals were 0ne of the few clear sellers at the recent deadline. Since Marte is on a one-year deal, he was surely available but probably didn’t garner much interest based on his age and performance. He stayed on the roster but the returns of Pasquantino and Garcia have now squeezed him off.

With the deadline now in the past, Marte will be placed on waivers in the coming days. As a veteran with at least five years of service time, Marte would have the right to reject an outright assignment while keeping the remainder of his salary. It’s possible the Royals skip that step and simply release him. Either way, he should be a free agent in the near future. The Royals will remain on the hook for the money Marte is still owed.

At that point, any other club could sign Marte and would only have to pay him the prorated league minimum salary. That amount would be subtracted from what the Royals pay. Despite that attractive financial arrangement, it would be surprising if he got a major league roster spot anywhere.

As for the bonuses, Marte’s deal gave him $125K for getting to 100 plate appearances and then for every 50 PAs after that up to 450. He hit the first two of those, earning an extra $250K. There was also $150K for spending 30 days on the active roster, $200K for 69, 90 and 120 days, then $250K for 150 days. He was just shy of the last of those but unlocked $750K in that department. In total, he earned $1MM in bonuses on top of his $1MM salary. Those bonuses will be dead once he is released or elects free agency, so they would not transfer to a new club unless he is claimed off waivers.