Fantasy Baseball Trade Advice: Players To Buy Low & Sell High (2023)
Pop quiz: other than winning your league, what’s the most fun part about fantasy baseball?
Trades, of course!
I started playing fantasy baseball back in the early 90s and vividly remember my first trade. I was 12 and playing in a league with my seventh-grade friends where we had to call in our weekly lineups to CompuServe (!) and make trades at school or over the phone.
I drafted Karl “Tuffy” Rhodes as a late-round flier and he then hit three home runs on Opening Day! All of my league mates (being 12 and all) freaked out and offered me the moon for Rhodes. I ended up doing a deal where I traded Rhodes and a pitcher (Kevin Tapani) for Ken Griffey Jr.
As anyone who has paid attention to any iota of baseball would know, that trade ended up being an absolute STEAL for me. Part of it was because it was a bunch of seventh-graders who got carried away with Opening Day, but part of it was the fact that we didn't have a lot of available research beyond box scores.
Now, we’re only one week into the season (and I hope you haven’t traded any of your first-round picks for the 2023 equivalent of Tuffy Rhodes), but it’s never too early to start looking at trade values.
We have an amazing Trade Analyzer Chart here on the site that you can use to gauge players’ current values, and I just spent way too long looking at various trade values. You’ll notice a few outliers in there that the algorithm will need at least a few days to catch up to, but this tool is an absolutely fantastic way to look at sell-high and buy-low players.
I’ll let you go explore the chart (and an amazing Trade Analyzer Tool if you’re a premium member) on your own in a minute, but if you’re short on time, I jotted down a few trade values that stuck out to me.
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Top Fantasy Baseball Buy Low Candidates
Alex Bregman, Houston Astros
Through the weekend, Bregman was 0-for-16. He’s since heated up a bit, but it’s worth seeing if you can find a frustrated owner who isn’t happy with his Adam Dunn-esque average and lack of power numbers. I’m actually not as big of a Bregman fan as others, but he’s still one of the better fantasy third basemen out there and plays in a fantastic lineup. While I’m not saying you should insult anyone with a lowball offer here, I think you can go in a little low and see if you can get a frustrated Bergman drafter to cut bait a little earlier than they’d like.
Teoscar Hernandez, Seattle Mariners
I’ve always been a big Teoscar guy (so take all of this with a grain of salt), but I don’t think I’m going out on a limb when I say he won’t hit .059 all year. Hernandez can be a 30/15 guy if he stays healthy all season (a big if) and is most definitely worth trying to get on the cheap. Even if he lands at his more likely outcome of something like 24 home runs and eight steals while hitting .285, that’s a nice stat line to grab if you can find someone who is willing to jump ship on the Teoscar Train.
Kyle Schwarber, Philadelphia Phillies
Again, I’m not saying to lowball to the point of insult, but I bet you can get Kyle Schwarber cheaper than you normally would otherwise. He’s 1-for-17 so far and has yet to hit a home run. And while I don’t think his owners will be rushing to sell on him, I think you could probably work him into a package where his value looks a little bit more depressed than it should. He’s never going to hit for a high average, but you can more or less pencil him in for a floor of 30 home runs so it’s worth seeing if you can get him a bit on the cheap (maybe with one of the players below).
Top Fantasy Baseball Sell High Candidates
Adam Duvall, Boston Red Sox
Through Sunday, Duvall was hitting .500 with seven runs, two home runs, and nine RBI. His OBP was .565 and his slugging percentage was 1.050. Do you think Duvall is going to keep that up? That’s obviously a rhetorical question and your league-mates would say no to that as well. But I bet you can find someone who is more into him than you are. Maybe they’re a Red Sox fan, or maybe they’re just someone who gets caught up in the moment. But it’s worth seeing if you can sell Duvall as a potential 35-home-run hitter who can put up 100 RBI in a Boston lineup that is scoring a lot of runs right now. For the record, I think he’s more of a 25-28 home run hitter who won’t top 80 RBI and will hit for a low average in a Boston lineup that won’t score a lot of runs. But hey, it’s worth seeing if someone will take the cheese.
Trayce Thompson, Los Angeles Dodgers
We’ve got our 2023 Karl Tuffy Rhodes here! Thompson is a good player. And he might even hit 25-plus home runs this year. But he’s not a full-time player, and he’s not going to hit .333 and stay on pace for 150 home runs this season. Similar to Duvall, you might have a little trouble finding a sucker, I mean, trade partner here, but Thompson is in a good lineup and has potential so it’s not completely ridiculous to ask for a relatively high return.
C.J. Cron, Colorado Rockies
I actually think Cron will be a valuable fantasy player this year. Especially if you drafted him in a value spot. But I also don’t think he’s going to keep up his current pace (.368 with three home runs and seven RBI) and it’s worth seeing if you can cash in your chips here. Again, I wouldn’t have any issue holding onto him as he’s put up his current numbers away from Coors Field so there’s still plenty of upside. BUT, every asset has a price and Cron could be a valuable trade chip if you have a league-mate looking for help at first base.
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