MLB Trade Value

Dave Cameron, who writes for USS Mariner, Fangraphs, and the Wall Street Journal, among others, is concluding a fantastic series on Fangraphs. He is ranking the top 50 assets in Major League Baseball. Players amass Wins Above Replacement (WAR). A team composed entirely of replacement level players wins about 50 games, so it takes roughly 35-45 WAR to be a playoff team. This past offseason, teams paid roughly 4.5 millions per WAR on the free agent market. As you can see, teams cannot buy their way to the playoffs; their payroll would be at least 180 million. So players that are within their six years of team control and quite valuable. Taking into account WAR, projected WAR, current and projected salaries, date becoming eligible for arbitration, date becoming a free agent, risk, potential, and scarcity, Cameron is exposing the masses to a new way of valuing baseball players. No longer are Alex Rodriguez, CC Sabathia, and Manny Ramirez the most valuable players to their teams. Evan Longoria, Hanley Ramirez, David Wright, Albert Pujols, and Matt Wieters hold those spots now. I've included links to the series below. The top 5 will be revealed Monday on Fangraphs.

Introduction

#50-46

#45-41

#40-36

#35-31

#30-26

#25-21

#20-16

#15-11

#10-6

BABIP pt 2

-0.116 David Wright

-0.110 Jordan Schafer

-0.099 Mark Reynolds

-0.093 Josh Fields

-0.091 Fred Lewis

-0.088 Chris Davis

-0.086 Chase Headley

-0.083 Matt Kemp

-0.082 Jhonny Peralta

-0.082 BJ Upton

-0.079 Dexter Fowler

-0.078 Michael Bourn

-0.076 Justin Upton

-0.075 Kevin Youkilis

-0.074 Russell Branyan

-0.067 Emilio Bonifacio

Speedsters will always show up here, as their speed allows them to reach base more often on balls in play than your average player. But David Wright, Mark Reynolds, Josh Fields, Chris Davis, Chase Headley, and Kevin Youkilis should see their batting averages drop considerably, ceteris paribus.