Maximizing a player’s trade value usually involves a team waiting until the last possible moment, hoping a team with some interest gets desperate as its roster hole becomes more evident. It also doesn’t hurt if the player being shopped gets red-hot leading up to the trade deadline.
But what if that player is reaching his seasonal peak in early May? Should a team cash in its chips now and potentially get much more in return than it will 12 weeks later? It’s worth considering, although it does “take two to tango,” as they say.
For a team to make a trade to upgrade its roster this early in the season, it’s usually exhausted all internal options and discovered that it’ll likely have to sacrifice some minor league talent to help out the major league ball club.
In case those two factors—a team deciding a player is at max value and another team ready to make a deal to upgrade its major league roster—can align, here are seven players that could fit the description.