In dynasty baseball leagues, timing is everything. There is nothing worse than getting excited about acquiring a player only to watch him immediately go into a slump or never return to the highs that he had before you acquired him. On the flip side, there is nothing better than acquiring a player for a cheap price only for his stock to skyrocket immediately after. The other side of trading may be even more rewarding or pain-inducing – shipping off a player at the right or wrong time is something that can cause you to lose sleep at night.
The most important thing to note is that nobody bats 1.000 here. Everybody who plays dynasty sports, and everybody in your league, is going to win some trades and lose some trades. The best you can hope to do is come out on the better side of that ledger more times than not. Be ok with losing some trades – if you’re not, you may become too hesitant to make them at all.
This might be even more important with minor leaguers than with major leaguers. If you buy a minor leaguer at the right time, he may blossom into The Next Big Thing. Maybe you find the next Kristian Campbell or Jesus Made. That can be a franchise changer for your dynasty team, and perhaps change the entire trajectory of your championship timeline.
Or maybe he hold on too long and that player becomes nothing—a roster clogger, eating up a valuable spot on your team, for months or years before you are finally willing to cut bait.
As mentioned before, prospecting is a tough task and one that you may make the wrong decision on more often than you’re comfortable with – I know I’ve cut bait too early and held on too late on several occasions. The best approach, especially with minor leaguers, is to make determinations based on the league set up. A shallow league where only a handful of prospects are rostered? Don’t be hesitant to churn and burn, and sell your prospects when their helium is high. A deeper league? Maybe exhibit a bit more patience.
Let’s take a look at some of the minor leaguers early in the season.
BUYS
C.J. Kayfus, 1B, CLE – Full disclosure: when starting this article, I assumed that Kayfus was going to be someone listed in the “sell” category. My general assumptions led me there—a likely 1B-only prospect that is off to a scorching start? It feels like the perfect recipe for the type of bat to sell high on to somebody who would simply see the stat line and want to buy in. But then I started digging a little bit more into Kayfus and bought into it. Maybe I’m the sucker, who knows.
Kayfus’ start is undeniable. Across his first 10 games at Double-A, the 23-year-old hit .474 with a home run and two doubles, while also drawing 10 free passes. It’s a pace that is impossible to keep up, but if it wasn’t for a fella by the name of Nick Kurtz, I have a feeling that Kayfus would be getting a lot more attention.
Being an offensive force is nothing new for the former third-round pick out of the University of Miami. Kayfus appeared in 107 games between High-A and Double-A in 2024, triple-slashing .291/.393/.511 with 17 longballs. One of the biggest concerns you might have with someone like Kayfus would be his ability, or inability, to handle southpaws. Well, Kayfus actually did more damage against left-handed pitching than right-handed pitching in 2024. In 89 plate appearances, Kayfus triple-slashed .342/.393/.532 with four home runs. It’s more of the same so far in 2025, too, with Kayfus posting a 1.481 OPS against lefties so far. That’s not to say that he won’t struggle against left-handed hitters as he continues to face higher-quality arms, but it’s encouraging to see that he has a handle on them at this point in his career.
Kayfus’ path to the big leagues—another factor that my assumptions were wrong about—appears to be murkier than it really is. The current everyday first baseman, Carlos Santana, is on a one-year deal. Kyle Manzardo gets some reps at first base, too, but in addition to him being an unproven young player himself, Cleveland is happy to have him split time between first base and designated hitter. All that is to say that it’s not unrealistic to envision Kayfus as someone with an opportunity to be a part of the big league club as soon as next year.
And despite his hot start, he’s still a bit under the radar.
Wei-En Lin, P, ATH – This is a small buy just because Lin is not a well-known name. He’s probably not even rostered in your league (Fantrax has his roster rate at 1%). Lin’s inclusion here is not an instruction to go and use a legitimate asset to acquire him, but a note that he should be on your radar and is probably worth dropping your worst prospect for to see what he becomes.
Lin is a 19-year-old lefty arm from Taiwan in the Athletics system. He’s appeared in three Single-A games thus far, tossing 12 innings in total. He’s only allowed on run, but more impressive are the strikeout numbers. Lin has sent down 24 hitters on strikes, and his K-BB rate is an incredible 60%. He is yet to walk a batter.
A dozen innings of work is such a small sample size that this could be nothing, but the results are also so good that it’s worth adding Lin at his price of free and seeing what happens next.
SELLS
Ernesto Martinez Jr., Jr, 1B – MIL – Martinez has become something of a hot name following a hot start. The lefty first baseman triple slashed .314/.417/.490 in his first 14 Triple-A games to start the year, with a 15% walk rate and just an 18.3% strikeout rate. The 6’6 slugger hit the ball hard, and he’s performed at every level. In 2024, Martinez put up a 146 wRC+ at Double-A, with 13 home runs and 20 steals in 110 games.
That all sounds well and good, so why is Martinez in the “sell” category? Well, a few reasons. For starters, he’s in his age-26 season. Martinez doesn’t turn 26 until June, but there is no denying that he is a bit older for a prospect, especially one that only has a handful of games above Double-A. While it’s certainly true that prospect development and growth are not linear, it’s also true that prospects breaking through at this age are more of an exception than a rule.
And then there is the fact that Martinez has never produced against left-handed pitching. He’s hitting just .125 against them in the early going in 2025, and had a .595 OPS against them in 2024. It doesn’t feel like an ability to hit lefties is just going to click at this age against better pitching, so Martinez’s best case scenario is a strong-side platoon bat with a decent average (he’s a career .264 hitter in the minors) and just okay power. That’s not a huge dynasty asset, but Martinez’s strong start to the season has him appearing like an early-season pop-up prospect, so you might be able to move him for a legitimate asset.
Nick Kurtz, 1B, ATH – Probably didn’t expect to see his name here, did you? Especially after he got the call? Let me be clear – Kurtz is a really, really good prospect, and his inclusion in the section of the article is not because there are some hidden red flags or because I think he will struggle at the MLB level or anything like that. In all honesty, Kurtz feels like one of the safer prospects in the game, and his immense power offers a tempting ceiling as well. If you roster Kurtz, there’s a good chance your best course of action here is just to hold him. He’s an MLB-ready slugger, and when he’s going to a young, fun offense that is playing in a hitter-friendly environment for
So why is he listed here, and not in the buy section? Well, it feels like Kurtz’s sizzling start to the year is the talk of the minor league season so far. Even more casual fantasy players in redraft leagues have started to hear about Kurtz. The hype is justified – through his first 13 games, Kurtz belted seven home runs and hit .386. There have been loud voices from the fantasy community for his promotion ever since, and now they are being answered. He’s cooled down the last week, hitting just .185 with 12 strikeouts in his last seven games, but his triple slash of .321/.385/.655 is still eye-catching.
So again, Kurtz is probably not a piece that you want to be actively shopping out. But if you are a contender and looking to win this season, it’s tough to imagine his value being any higher than it is at the current moment, and you can probably flip him for a very valuable MLB-proven asset. Kurtz may very well help contending teams following his promotion, but there could also be an adjustment period to MLB pitching. A lot of the time, prospects can be like new cars and lose their value as soon as they are taken off the lot. Kurtz may tear the cover off the ball upon arrival, but he may also struggle against big-league arms, in which case it may be tough to trade him above sticker price like you can right now.
