It's trading season in fantasy baseball, as the stretch run is just around the corner.
In dynasty and keeper leagues, it's a critical time for judging your team's competitive state for the remainder of this year. If you're not a legitimate contender for the title, it's a smart time to make trades to strengthen your roster for a run in 2024. Remember, the longer you wait, the more flooded the trade market might become with other teams also throwing in the towel, so take a look at your roster today and make your call: "All-in" or "turn the page"?
To help you on your way with honing your roster, either for a championship run or a rebuild, this column should help your player valuations. In this space, I rank players for the next five-plus seasons, serving as an effective price guide for dynasty and keeper leagues.
The rankings formula
This midseason Dynasty 300 update uses the following player valuation formula:
Rest-of-2023 performance: 10%.
2024 performance: 22.5%.
2025 performance: 22.5%.
2026 performance: 22.5%.
2027 performance and beyond: 22.5%.
The rationale behind these weights is to provide a long-term projection of player values, in order to help fantasy managers in dynasty/keeper leagues who are weighing trades or trying to decide on end-of-season keepers. For those in redraft/single-year leagues, my points-league rankings for the remainder of 2023 alone can be found here. This page, however, is for fantasy managers who need to forecast deep into the future.
Several factors can influence these values. Here are some of the other things to consider:
Your league's format itself: Is your dynasty league a traditional roto or points-based league? Does it use ESPN's standard settings, or more traditional or even deeper roster settings? These rankings take a more points-based lean, to mirror our standard game, but since they project over a long range, they do bring into consideration player values over a broader set of formats.
Number of keepers: How many players can you keep each year, and must every team keep the same number?
Player pricing: Is your league a draft or salary-cap format, and do you price players by draft round or for a dollar amount -- or is price not part of the keeper equation?
Contract factors: Are there limits on the number of years you can keep a player and/or are there guaranteed contracts, and is there price inflation?
Farm teams: Does your league include minor league/farm-team slots and how are these players factored into the keeper system?
Team competitiveness: Are you a contender, rebuilder or something in between?