3 Reasons Edward Cabrera’s low trade value is wrong

Reason 2 - Age and Control

The Marlins 5th starter is 25 and will turn 26 this season which gives him plenty of future seasons to thrive as a starting pitcher in the league. The Marlins have one of the youngest rotations in baseball but Cabrera could help another team get younger in that category. He still is pre-arbitration eligible and isn’t arbitration eligible until 2026. This also gives the Marlins, or whatever team Cabrera is traded to years of control. Cabrera isn’t a free agent until 2029, which means teams will have several years of low payroll impact for a potential top tier starter. That is worth a lot, especially for teams with a bloated payroll, getting a quality pitcher for a small price. 

Reason 3 - Shallow market

The starting pitching market is shallow, as the high dollar teams have added high dollar pitchers, the middling and lower pay teams are searching for any quality affordable pitcher. That’s where Cabrera comes in, he can be a solid pitcher for years for low payroll teams and not cost what someone like Snell is commanding, yet he might enable a team to afford a higher priced player since his salary is so low. 

Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery are still out there as free agents for starting pitchers but Snell made $10 million a season for the past five years, and he wants a bigger multi-year deal. Teams simply cannot afford that if they are in a lower payroll realm. Snell was reportedly offered a 6 year $150 million dollar deal by the Yankees which is 25 million a year but he wants $200 million. He is simply out of reach for most teams.  Jordan Montgomery similarly made $10 million last year, and certainly won’t garner the $150 million offer Snell got, but he will get paid more this coming season, and where that number is remains to be seen but several teams are interested. 

If you are a team that can’t afford either of those players, there really isn’t anyone left of value like Cabrera and thus his value is high. This is likely why he hasn’t been traded yet, the Marlins asking price is linked to the shallow market and teams aren’t ready to jump just yet. This does give him great value for a player with a mid 3 ERA potential and years of team control for cheap compared to current market values. He is underrated for all those reasons, and probably more, so where will he be in 2024?