Just a note here to try to build understanding. Watching the trade deadline shows, there is a major factor in this that none of these guys has any understanding of.
Since many prospects do not "pan out", there are always more prospects than players. If you have 37 players that you want to keep on your 40-man roster and, looking at your minor league system, there are another eight players that you will need to add to your 40-man roster this off-season or you will lose them, then you have no choice but to trade prospects at the deadline, because you’re going to lose them anyway. If you only have 32 players that you really like and there are only a couple of guys in your minor league system that you are going to need to protect, then it makes sense for you to make a trade to try to take advantage of the teams which have a surplus.
The value of a 40-man roster spot is determined by the market. The best 1200 players in the game. . .those are guys who are good enough to deserve a spot. You’re not going to have exactly 40 of those guys on every team. Just by the nature of the universe, you’re going to have 33 on one team and 48 on another. The team with 48 more or less HAS to make a trade with the team that has 33, because of the roster rules.
You are trying to move wins in time, of course, trying to move wins from a year when you don’t have a shot to a year when you do, and you are trying to move positions, of course, trying to trade an outfielder for a pitcher when you need a pitcher. The guys on the TV talk about those things all the time and speculate about the post-season as if it started tomorrow, but there’s another factor there that they don’t get at all.