Latest Ketel Marte update formally extinguishes Yankees' dream (with brutal company)

Ever since the Joe Ryan trade deadline rumors, we've advocated for the New York Yankees to, at the very least, find a way to make the Red Sox have to at least work to accomplish their goals. Unfortunately, in the case of Ketel Marte, there's nothing they can really do.

While it's been speculated in the past that Marte has included the Yankees on his no-trade list, Ken Rosenthal made it official on Monday by revealing the relevant details. Sometimes, no-trade lists are curated not to rule out undesirable teams entirely, but to increase a player's leverage — if you're going to send me here, I control my fate and the return.

In this case? It's hard not to feel like Marte's list is a group of personal undesirables.

Who knows why Marte doesn't want to be a Yankee, but he's grouped them alongside the Giants, Cardinals, Athletics, and Pirates on his five-team blockade list. The A's play their home games at a Triple-A stadium. The Pirates are notoriously capped. St. Louis isn't really an "acquired taste"; if you're not interested in calling it home, you're probably not going to "get there" with a little convincing.

The Giants? Marte hits .300 with an .893 OPS and 11 homers in San Francisco over the course of his career. That's an odd one. But we'll never know, and Marte clearly feels exclusionary for whatever reason.

Ketel Marte really doesn't want to go to the Yankees. Or the Pirates or Athletics!

Marte would've represented an affordable long-term deal, and an alternative to engaging in Jazz Chisholm Jr. extension talks for the Yankees. On the bright side, at least the Yankees have learned he has no interest in competing in the Bronx before acquiring him. Nobody wants to splurge for the position player equivalent of Sonny Gray. No amount of disrupting the Red Sox's plans is worth acquiring someone who already knows they can't handle New York (or have no interest in trying).

The Yankees still must get creative before this offseason clock expires, but if they do make a blockbuster trade, it seems likely their target will be a starting pitcher. Marte has closed the door on 'em before they ever came knocking, and Brendan Donovan appears headed elsewhere as well. Hopefully, the next player they actually fall in love with doesn't also have them categorized alongside the Sacramento Wanderers and Bob Nutting's Traveling All-Stars.