With trade deadlines now looming within sight, it’s as important as ever to have your shopping list ready. Knowing ahead of time which players you want to target and then opening up discussions with their respective managers is almost always going to be a more productive use of time than having general trade talks with the managers you already speak to the most, and seeing what you can get from them. I much prefer to identify which player I want, analyze the roster of their current manager ahead of time, and then open up with an offer that, in theory, should help both sides.
This week’s column will focus on a Phillies’ slugger having perhaps his best year yet, before moving on to a pair of second basemen who both may be the best non-Ketel Marte options at the position for plenty of points in the second half of the 2025 season.
2025 Stats (412 PA’s): .254/.385/.560; 30 home runs; 69 RBI; 66 runs; 2 stolen bases
Since joining the Philadelphia Phillies in 2022, Kyle Schwarber has become the epitome of the ‘all-or-nothing’ slugger who was swinging for the fences and willing to stomach a batting average that hovered around .200 in the process.
His first two seasons in Philadelphia: 46 home runs (only 96 RBI, though) and a .218 BA in 2022; 43 home runs and an even uglier .197 average in 2023. I personally wasn’t someone looking to roster Schwarber in those seasons, even in points leagues where home runs pack an extra punch. The batting average was just too ugly, and the rate of return per homer was just not good enough to justify rostering Schwarber for me.
That began to change a bit last season, when Schwarber sacrificed a bit of power (38 home runs) for a much more tolerable batting average of .248. He still wasn’t a must-roster hitter in my eyes, but his more well-rounded profile made for a much more consistent points producer from week to week. Schwarber has now taken that approach to another level in 2025, sustaining a .253 batting average through the first 93 games of the season. Most importantly, his power is at levels even greater than in those homer-heavy first couple of seasons in Philly. He is currently on pace to eclipse 50 home runs for the first time in his career, and with the summer only just starting to heat up, there is plenty of reason to believe he can reach that lofty plateau. Schwarber’s Process+ rolling chart has one of the largest swaths of green that can be found around the entire league, putting into graphics just how prodigious his power really is.
Despite below-league-average contact metrics, Schwarber has been at least 25% better than the average MLB hitter at almost all times thanks to that power. His other underlying metrics are equally impressive, with one of the more well-rounded deep-red Statcast pages you’ll find.
Though he still swings and misses at a very high rate, staying within the strike zone allows Schwarber to maximize his production and do consistent damage to the baseball. This current approach has turned Schwarber into a bona fide top-10 player in points leagues, and he should be treated as such for the remainder of the season. If you’re looking to put together an aggressive trade package to acquire a big bat, Schwarber is the one I would recommend targeting. He is still likely to be slightly cheaper than fellow big names like Aaron Judge, Juan Soto, or Shohei Ohtani, and yet his production may end up very comparable at the end of the year.
2025 Stats (259 PA’s): .252/.350/.522; 17 home runs; 43 RBI; 39 runs; 10 stolen bases
Jazz Chisholm Jr. has had a bit of a strange tenure in the Bronx ever since being traded from the Miami Marlins to the New York Yankees in late July 2024, almost a full year ago. Moved around from position to position, and generally in and out of the lineup due to a long list of various minor injuries, Chisholm’s hot streaks have mostly been short-lived with the Yankees, and he has struggled to sustain long-term momentum.
Now (relatively) healthy and recently returned to his favorite position, second base, after the Yankees decided to designate veteran D.J. LeMahieu for assignment, Chisholm is looking as comfortable as he ever has in the pinstripes and looks to be on the verge of finding that sought-after consistent success. He’s making great use of the short right-field porch at Yankee Stadium, lifting home run after home run that direction, but he’s also hit some impressive blasts to center field, too, lately. Chisholm often looked to be a player swinging out of his shoes over the course of his first couple hundred at-bats with the Yankees, but since returning from his most recent injury in June, he has settled into a more controlled, albeit still plenty powerful, stroke. Especially over the past couple of weeks, Chisholm has looked like a more mature hitter, and his Process+ rolling chart bears this out.
Plagued by contact metrics that dragged his overall approach down by quite a bit, Chisholm struggled to be anything other than a league-average hitter in the first month of the season. He was on a similar trajectory at the beginning of June, but as previously mentioned, he seemingly has tweaked his approach towards a swing that looks more under control to the eye. Chisholm looks to be trying to lift/launch the ball rather than swing as hard as possible in an effort to hit scorching line drives with every swing, and it’s working on all levels. Not only have his contact metrics creeped up towards the league average, rather than sagging well below that line as before, but his power metrics have actually improved in the process, rather than being sacrificed in the name of contact. This approach has lifted several of Chisholm’s power metrics into elite air.
One concern is the fact that he has had so many minor injuries that have left him unavailable for almost 30% of the team’s games so far, and he recently complained of shoulder soreness. However, as mentioned, the Yankees have decided to move Chisholm back to his preferred position of second base, and I imagine those shoulder issues to quickly settle down now that he’s not playing (and practicing) in a position that he was clearly uncomfortable with. Chisholm has always been a high-energy player and someone who feeds off his own energy, and a happy Chisholm back at second base should only mean good things for his numbers moving forward. A 30-home-run season is very much in reach now, a feat that only Ketel Marte can hope for among fellow second basemen. This puts Chisholm in very attractive territory as a trade target — the points he pours in at the second base position in the second half of the season could very well help win leagues.
2025 Stats (170 PA’s): .248/.306/.484; 10 home runs; 20 RBI; 26 runs; 1 stolen base
If you’re not looking to spend big on an aforementioned big name but still want to add some pop to your lineup, then Jordan Westburg may be your perfect target. Similarly to Chisholm, Westburg has not been in his team’s lineup consistently this year due to injury, but the 26-year-old infielder for the Baltimore Orioles is now healthy and finding his groove. He has not played enough games in 2025 for Statcast percentiles, but there are otherwise enough promising aspects to Westburg’s game to believe he could put together a huge second half. His Process+ rolling chart is impressive, especially for the second-base position, mixing solid power and decision-making.
Westburg’s contact metrics have lagged a bit since he returned from injury in mid-June, but he’s shown better contact ability in the past that he can be expected to regain as he continues to get his reps in. His Ideal Plate Appearance (IPA) rate of 32.3% ranks 26th in the league, suggesting the foundation of Westburg’s approach is elite. His Hard-Contact rate of 32.2% ranks 72nd in the league — not exactly elite, but still very impressive for a middle-infielder. Sprinkle on top of that a sprint speed of 29.1 ft/s that places Westburg in the 91st percentile for that metric, and you have all of the tools for a potential points league-winning player.
I would try and haggle down the price for Westburg a bit based on his previous injury and general lack of a lengthy MLB resume. It’s one of the best chances to get potentially elite production at less-than-elite prices.
