The MLB trade deadline is still about six weeks away, but the rumor mill has already started churning. Some names will dominate headlines all summer, while others will emerge as trade candidates once the line between buyers and sellers becomes more clear. Not every player linked to trade speculation is equally likely to move, though, and separating genuine possibilities from deadline noise is part of the fun of being a fan.
That’s what this exercise aims to do. We’ve ranked the 25 most valuable players who we see as realistic candidates to be traded if the cards break right over the next six weeks while also predicting whether each one will actually be dealt. Last season, we correctly predicted the fate of 17 of 25 players around this point in the calendar, and that number improved to 20 of 25 in our revised list closer to the deadline.
