Evaluating trade assets is always a tricky thing. In fact, it’s more an art than a science, an art that few are particularly good at. On one hand, rentals can fetch a hefty portion of a team’s prospect capital, just look at David Price’s trade from the Detroit Tigers to the Toronto Blue Jays. While it turns out that the prospects the Jays gave up in that deal were not as valuable as their scouting reports suggest, it was huge at the time.
On the other hand, short-term acquisitions can prove to be downright useless in their effect on the team they’re traded to.