Fantasy Baseball Trade Advice Week 7: Players To Buy Low & Sell High (5/17/23)
Welcome to Week 7!
If you’re starting to look at making some trades, it can often be hard to figure out where to start. Who do you sell high on? Who do you buy low on? Which struggling players just aren’t worth buying at all? Besides me spending too much time looking at this stuff (more on that below), we have some great resources available to us.
As you may or may not know, we have a fantastic Trade Analyzer Chart here on the site that you can use to gauge players’ current values. You’ll notice a few outliers in there that the algorithm will catch up to as we go, 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, here are some players who are sticking out to me as of May 17.
Top Fantasy Baseball Buy Low Candidates
Corbin Carroll, Arizona Diamondbacks
I had Carroll as a sell-high when he was on fire earlier in the season, but I’m going to take the opposite approach now that he’s been cold as of late. Carroll is still hitting .279 with five home runs and 10 steals despite hitting just .205 so far in May. Young players go through hot and cold streaks, and Carroll is still just 22 years old. See if you can find a league-mate who is frustrated/scared by his current play and try to pry him away from them. Better times are bound to come soon.
Mike Trout, Los Angeles Angels
Mike Trout is a generational player. Maybe the best to every play baseball. But he’s struggling right now and you very well might be able to get him for less than a top-20 player – which is what he is. He’s hitting just .274 with 29 runs, eight home runs, 20 RBI, and zero steals on the season. That’s still really good, but it’s not what people who drafted him in the first two rounds of their drafts expected. See if you can cobble a 2-for-1 together and buy-low on Trout as he’s bound to break out of his current slump during which he’s hitting .200 during the month of May.
Gerrit Cole, New York Yankees
Don’t look now, but Cole looks mortal. And that means we should be circling. After a hot start to the season, Cole has allowed two runs in each of his last four starts – including two home runs allowed in each of his last two starts. He still has fantastic numbers on the year (5-0, 2.22 ERA, 1.04 WHIP, and 62 strikeouts in 56.2 innings), but he also hasn’t made it out of the sixth inning in a month. See if you can find a panicked league-mate and capitalize.
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Top Fantasy Baseball Sell High Candidates
Luis Robert, Chicago White Sox
One of the best things you can do with trades is sell high based on a narrative. The narrative here? Robert is ON FIRE with a home run in four straight games. He’s obviously not going to keep up that pace, but maybe you can find someone in your league who might be a little too caught up in what he’s been doing – and less caught up in what he will be doing. I like Robert a lot (and he’s been limited by injuries thus far in his career), but he’s one home run away from his career high. See if you can strike while the iron is hot and sell Robert now while he’s at his absolute peak value.
Salvador Perez, Kansas City Royals
Perez is the best catcher you can have on your fantasy team, but that’s not as valuable as saying someone is the best outfielder or pitcher you can have on your fantasy team. Catchers are great and all, but they just don’t carry as much value because (unless you’re in a league where you have to start two), there are usually 10-12 catchers who are worth starting in fantasy leagues. Perez is having a typical Perez season and is hitting .289 with 22 runs, nine home runs, and 25 RBI. See if you can find someone in your league who has a waiver wire-worthy catcher and try to sell them on Perez. I promise you can find a decent replacement for him on waivers.
Mitch Keller, Pittsburgh Pirates
Keller is currently a top-5 fantasy pitcher with a 5-1 record, 2.38 ERA, 1.02 WHIP, and 69 strikeouts in 56.2 innings. The 27-year-old finished last year with a 5-12 record, 3.91 ERA, 1.40 WHIP, and 138 strikeouts in 159.0 innings. I’m not saying he’s going to revert to those numbers, but I also don’t think his current pace is sustainable – especially the jump to an 11.0 K/9 ratio that is far above his career average of 8.9 K/9. Could he have figured things out and taken a leap? Sure. Is it worth selling high if you can? Yes.
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