Best prospects moved at the Trade Deadline this century

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We’re closing in on this year’s Trade Deadline (July 31) and there have already been a good number of prospects dealt over the last month and change, and there will assuredly be more between now and Thursday. How any of this year’s wheeling and dealing stack up to years past remains to be seen, but anticipating what will transpire over the next few days definitely got me thinking historically a bit.

There have been so many prospects dealt at the Deadline over the years, even if you just go back as far as 2004, the first year prospect rankings of any kind appeared on MLB.com, and it would be impossible to break down all of them. But since I’ve been here for every single one of those Deadlines -- 21 not counting this year -- I thought I’d provide a look at which prospects have gone on to be the best players. That might give short shrift to more-recently traded prospects, like a Thayron Liranzo or Robby Snelling from last year. Or it could be guys from previous years who haven’t made it up yet -- someone like Edwin Arroyo -- but I can live with that if you can. We can always revisit this list again in the future. Here’s my list of standouts since the turn of the century.

Cliff Lee, LHP: Sure, Lee's 43.2 bWAR is higher than any other prospect who was dealt since 2004. But he also has the special distinction of being a prospect in one huge deal (going from Montreal to Cleveland in the Bartolo Colon deal in 2002), and also being the marquee big leaguer who was traded for prospects in another deal when Cleveland sent him to Philadelphia seven years later. He wasn’t done being involved in trades, going to the Mariners ahead of the 2010 season, then going to the Rangers in July of that year in a deal that sent then-ranked prospect Justin Smoak to the Mariners. If you were to play an MLB trade version of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, Lee probably is connected to more dealt prospects than anyone in recent history.

(Special shout out here to Matt Harrison. He doesn’t make the “best of” list, though he was an All-Star who spent parts of eight seasons in the big leagues, but he gets special Cliff Lee-light commendation for also being in a big prospect deal, going from the Braves to the Rangers in the Mark Teixeira deal in 2007, then being involved in another huge Deadline deal when he went from Texas to the Phillies in the 2015 Cole Hamels trade.)

James Wood, OF: There’s going to be a good debate in Washington over which young player the Nationals got in the 2022 Juan Soto trade is better. I don’t have to insert myself into the Wood vs. CJ Abrams discussion, because Abrams technically had graduated from prospect status when the Padres sent him to the nation’s capital. Both have the chance to be very, very good, and the 22-year-old Wood is just starting to really figure things out this year. Yes, they got MacKenzie Gore, too, but he also was past prospect status.

Elvis Andrus, SS: Andrus joined Harrison in that 2007 Deadline blockbuster as the headliner prospect going from Atlanta to Texas for Teixeira. He went on to make two All-Star teams with the Rangers and played a total of 15 years in the big leagues, a dozen of those in Texas. The 2009 American League Rookie of the Year runner-up finished with 34.5 WAR.

Brandon Phillips, 2B: Man, that Colon deal was insane. Lee, Phillips and Grady Sizemore combined for 99.8 WAR, with Phillips just edging out Sizemore. Phillips didn’t establish himself until 2006 with the Reds, amassing 28.5 of his 28.9 WAR and earning his three All-Star nods and four Gold Gloves with Cincy.

Gleyber Torres, 2B: I’ve always liked using Torres as an example of being in a 2016 trade that worked for both teams. The Yankees got their future second baseman who made two All-Star teams in 2018 and 2019 (and finished third in 2018 ROY voting). The Cubs got Aroldis Chapman, who helped them nail down their first World Series championship that year. (I don’t want to forget the Yankees also got Adam Warren in this deal, who provided real value to their big league pitching staff for a number of years.)

Others I considered/others to keep an eye on: Scott Kazmir, LHP (Mets to Rays for Victor Zambrano, 2004); Dylan Cease, RHP (Cubs to White Sox for Jose Quintana); Carlos Carrasco, RHP (2009; Philadelphia to Cleveland in the aforementioned second Lee deal)