Teams Trade Targets Get Younger

Rookie-level players are now in high trade demand

- J.J. Cooper

At the rate basebal is going, by 2020 teams will be signing international prospects on July 2 and trading them away July 3.

In the never-ending quest to find an edge, the 2017 trade deadline continued a developing pattern. Teams are proving willing to dig deeper and deeper into other teams’ farm systems in an attempt to land a bargain—and to find prospects teams are willing to deal.

Of the 59 minor leaguers traded this July, eight were in Rookie or short-season ball at the time of the trade. Another had yet to make it to the U.S., because he is pitching in the Dominican Summer League.

It was a similar story in 2016, when seven players in short-season leagues were dealt in the month leading up to the trade deadline.