JotCast | Top 50 Trade Value Chat | 7/24/2026

Top 50 Trade Value Chat

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Ben Clemens

12:00

Hey everyone. Welcome to the chat.

12:01

I'm going to let the queue fill up with just a few more questions because I got a late start on posting this, but I'm going to be ready to go in a few minutes.

In the meantime, a good rule of thumb in these discussions is that I'm going to end up answering questions about a lot of players. But probably not about the same player many times, if that makes sense

12:02

So plan on long answers to some of these, longer than my normal chat format for sure.

12:03

And of course, if you're not asking a question about trade value, I think you've found the wrong place. I have a weekly chat on Mondays that is a great place for all kinds of off-topic stuff, or baseball-related but not trade value related

This particular chat is supposed to be about this article series that I just spent weeks and weeks making. So yeah, not answering your question if it's like, how bout them Cards. we can talk about that later

SPArn

12:03

Curious about a couple guys you didn't mention in HM. Were Sale, Hoerner, or Bryan Reynolds at all close?

formerly matt w

12:03

Hi Ben! Thanks for the list and the chat! How close did you have Chris Sale?

Ben Clemens

12:04

Okay, on HM's in general

I mean, I'm not hard ranking these guys down to 112 or whatever

nobody has time for that, no one wants to see it, no one would actually help me out if I handed them a list with more than 100 names on it

I think a better option might be just not doing HM's

12:05

because the truth is that we try to avoid people yelling at us

by just throwing lots of names on there

and then at some point when HM's are longer than the list, and we're getting DEEP into people that I gave basically 0 consideration for hte top 50, I say enough

so uh, how close did I have Sale? Not close enough to the top 50 to send out a list. but if he's an HM for you, I have no issue with that whatsoever

12:06

like, it's just a lot of names, I'm not super tied to the guys we put on or didn't

but Reynolds? nah

12:07

Hoerner sure, I dunno, how many stars on big contracts shoudl we list?

12:08

I'm not super tied to that part of the rankings, just super hard to exert as much focus on spots that low as I am towards the top of the list

jdankosky

12:08

The series is great, and always a midsummer highlight! Thank you. One thing I really wish it included is some idea of what exactly it would take to swing these trades? Like, is a top-5 trade value guy worth two 55FV prospects, a 45+ and a MLB player? Or what? I guess I'm asking about "cost" vs "value"

Ben Clemens

12:08

uh, no. the top guys are basically not acquirable. But it'd be for more than that, 100%

12:09

the last guy who was arguably a top 10 trade value to get traded was Soto

i had him top 10 that year, I don't think my industry contacts agreed

and he got like a lot more than that, a lot a lot

12:10

I think you're talking start with the best several prospects in your system and start adding

and that will probably not be enough

the truth is that this is kind of a silly exercise if you think about it as 'these guys will get traded'

it's more like 'who are the most droolworthy combinations of player and contract'

leoneforthird

12:11

How close was Cole Young to the list. Seems like with his bat, defense, and club control he would be knocking on the door.

Ben Clemens

12:11

not closer than colt emerson, if that helps calibrate

12:12

but he was on my initial list

12:13

and like, didn't make me think 'dang I need to get him on there'

TKDC

12:13

I’d suggest at a minimum cutting out the glob of prospects from HM. Because, for example, do you think the Braves would trade Sale straight up for any of tgrm

Ben Clemens

12:13

well the prospects would probably be one of the last to go because that's a cool place to look for future members of the top 50

but also, don't think of this list as 'would these guys get traded one for one'

because lots of teams would not trade thoes prospects for Sale

12:14

i know that's annoying, I know we have to mention it way more than people would probably prefer, but you can't say 'checkmate, my team wouldn't trade player 39 for player 38, you dummy'

I am with you that I'd be fine having Sale on there

but that's why I think maybe just NO HM's

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