As the season winds down, Alex Anthopoulos was asked if Major League teams have begun to overvalue prospects while waiting too long to pull the trigger on a trade involving youngsters.

"It is harder and harder to get value for players. Teams like Oakland and Tampa Bay and San Diego have to churn players due to financial issues," Anthopoulos said. "They need to be a little bit ahead of it. Off the top of my head, ten years ago you could get pretty good value for a player with one or two years of control left. Now it is starting to shift a little bit, it is three years of control or four years of control.

"You look at Mat Latos had four years of control left and, I can’t speak for San Diego, to get maximum value you have trade these players earlier than later. If you look at a lot of players who are one year away from free agency and what the return is for established stars it is not as great as what you would expect."