Dynasty or keeper-based leagues are my favorite types of leagues to play in. Typically, they feature a group of managers who are fully invested in the league, as you’re playing not only to win this year but setting yourself up to win in future years, too.

But we aren’t stupid. We know that football is king, and when football is going on, many fantasy baseball managers tune out.

Now that we are two weeks from the Super Bowl, it’s the time that people start shifting back into fantasy baseball, and it’s never too late for some off-season dynasty advice.

One of the hallmarks of a dynasty manager is recognizing the time to acquire players in your league. But just important is the ability to know when to trade a player away. It can separate you from the pack, and it doesn’t just have to be done in one way.

Below, I’ll go through the different tiers of trading players in dynasty leagues, as well as the players who fit the model in each.

MLB Dynasty Players to Trade Away

Pitchers

If you want a fun exercise, go back and look at top prospect lists from the last decade, and then look at the pitchers on there.

It might not be as fun as it will be sad. Pitchers get injured, and it’s hard to count on them in dynasty leagues. The smart move – I have six helpings of Ricky Tiedemann and five of Eury Perez – is to fade pitching prospects and trade for major-league pitching instead.

Here are a few pitchers that I would look to trade in dynasty leagues.

• Eury Perez (SP – MIA) – I’m fairly confident in Perez having front-line potential. Still, it’s more of the injury risk that has me looking to deal him. I’ll trade basically any pitcher, but those who are younger and aren’t in the big leagues with a ton of hype around them are the ones I look to move first.
• Ricky Tiedemann (SP – TOR) – Speaking of hype, no one raised their stock more than the southpaw in the Toronto system last year. He’s getting his first taste of Spring Training this year, and he’s a top 5 pitching prospect in baseball. But again, it comes down to a young arm with a ton of hype being able to fetch a nice return. Sorry, Mrs. Tiedemann.
• Spencer Strider (SP, RP – ATL) – Strider was fantastic last year, and I get the reasoning for people drafting him so early this year. Everyone wants a piece of him after his rookie season, and that’s exactly why I’d look to flip him. The two pitches concern me, yes, but it’s more of the fact that he hasn’t had a heavy workload yet. I want pitchers I can count on, and Strider – who will probably get there – hasn’t done it yet.

Older Breakouts

We do this every year, and every year, we wonder why we didn’t catch it. Last year, it was Frank Schwindel who was coming off a late-career breakout, and now he’s out of the league. There are some older players who maintain their breakout, but more times than not, they tend to fade back to oblivion.

• Joey Meneses (1B – WAS) – Meneses is already 30, and we’ve seen exactly 240 plate appearances at the big-league level from him. The skills look fine, but there’s likely a reason he’s been in the minors for a decade-plus.
• Nestor Cortes Jr. (SP – NYY) – I actually like Cortes for fantasy, but investing a top-115 pick in him is a little rich for my blood. It was a great story last year, but I expect some strikeout and ERA regression to take place.

Hype Train

This can apply to prospects or major league players, as every year, there are players that the entire industry loves, which kind of ruins their sleeper appeal.

• Oscar Colas (OF – CHW) – Colas was one of my favorite off-season sleepers, but then it seemed like everyone else was on board, too. I like the possibility of him getting the starting job in right field, but it’s starting to seem like too many are expecting a big year in his rookie season despite the obvious flaws.
• Vinnie Pasquantino (1B – KC) – I like Pasquantino a lot, and I have him as a top 7 1B for this year. The hit tool is everything I like to see, as well as the quality of contact metrics. But it’s still a guy who has a relatively small track record and has insane hype around him. I’d dangle him out there to see what I could get.
• Adalberto Mondesi (SS – BOS) – I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Friends don’t let friends draft Mondesi. The goal is to have good players on your team, not just fast ones. Now that he’s in Boston, there’s some excitement around his career revival. Let someone else continue to believe.

Outliers

Outlier seasons are always fun because we convince ourselves that it could be the true version without acknowledging the risks that come with that. Take Tyler O’Neill last season, for instance. Prior to 2021, O’Neill showed glimpses of big-time power with his high strikeout rate. Suddenly, one good season made everyone think that that’s the true version of him. It could have been, of course, as growth isn’t linear, but the safe bet was that we were going to see that long track record of mediocrity come back.

• Harrison Bader (OF – NYY) – What’s with the excitement around Bader? Sure, he was fine with the Yankees, but maybe – just maybe – we are allowing his solid postseason numbers to infiltrate our minds.
• Kyle Wright (SP – ATL) – Sure, it takes pitchers longer than hitters to put it together, but the seasons from Wright came out of nowhere. He’s 27, and prior to last year, Wright failed to do anything at the big-league level in 70 innings. A big driver for him last year was his 21 wins, which are unlikely to return this season.

Closers

This will be the one section where I don’t have any players listed because it’s all-encompassing. The last spot you should invest in for your dynasty leagues is closers. Year to year, there is so much turnover that it’s hard to be sure of who will keep their job. In a startup, you should ignore closers altogether. It’s easier to trade for them when you’re ready to contend than it is to hold on to closers or speculate who is next.

I’ll almost always trade closers away in dynasty leagues, even if it’s at a loss on paper.

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Michael Waterloo is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Michael, check out his archive and follow him @MichaelWaterloo.