No. 34: Christian Yelich, OF, Brewers (Last Year: 18)

No need for a theoretical here: The Marlins traded Yelich this off-season, and the return was a little lighter than we might’ve figured a year earlier, when Yelich cracked the Trade Value Top 20. The Brewers sized up their target, who is 26 years old, owed $58.3 million over the next five seasons (counting a club option), with excellent on-base skills, solid baserunning, superb defence, and so-so power (his only notable weakness) and decided he was worth four prospects, led by the promising duo of Lewis Brinson and Isan Diaz. That’s a pretty good haul, but also one that’s a little lighter than many might have been expected.

No. 33: Aaron Nola, P, Phillies (Last Year: Not Ranked)

Scan the world of baseball’s cognoscenti and you’ll find near-universal agreement that Nola is about to light up the league. We’re pretty sure Lemon Zester Quarterly just named Nola a breakout pitcher to watch in 2018. That kind of across-the-board enthusiasm can be almost enough to make you a bit suspicious.

Now try finding good reasons not to get excited about the Phillies’ young ace. Nola is 24-years old and offers four years of controllable service time. He whiffed nearly four batters for every one he struck out last year, with better than a strikeout per inning. He’s a prolific worm-burner with a career 51 per cent groundball rate. His sinker-curveball-changeup repertoire creates a kaleidoscope of wicked horizontal and vertical movement.

The final step would be to shake off the nagging injuries that have curtailed his time atop the mound. If he can crack 200 innings for the first time this year, a dark horse run at Cy Young contention could be next.

No. 32 Anthony Rendon, 3B, Nationals (Last Year: Not Ranked)

No. 31 Paul Goldschmidt, 1B, Diamondbacks (Last Year: 11)

If we’re willing to consider the trade value of players who can only be kept for one season, we certainly have to do so for players who can test the open market after two more, too.

Rendon dramatically improved his batting eye last season, netting a career-best .301/.403/.533 line that, combined with excellent defence, made him one of the top all-around players in the game. Goldschmidt rebounded from a 2016 power drop to tie his career high of 36 homers. He’s one of the best all-around players in baseball, he’s in his prime, and he’s owed a very affordable $25.5 million over the next two years.

A team in full rebuild mode might not empty the prospect cupboard to acquire either Rendon or Goldschmidt. But plenty of teams would jump at the chance to land a do-it-all, Top 10 player of their ilk.

No. 30: Freddie Freeman, 1B, Braves (Last Year: 47)

You know you can rake when you fracture your wrist, miss six weeks with the injury, struggle initially after your return, and still hit a sizzling .307/.403/.586 with 28 home runs in just 117 games. Freeman’s one of the highest-paid players in baseball, as he’s set to earn $21 million in 2018, and $86 million through 2021.

He’s worth every penny and then some. Since Opening Day 2016, only five players (all-world hitters Mike Trout, Joey Votto, Jose Altuve, J.D. Martinez, and Josh Donaldson) have produced more at the plate than Freeman has.

No. 29: Jon Gray, P, Rockies (Last Year: 45)

There are multiple tools here that suggest an imminent breakout. Gray’s struck out one-quarter of the batters he’s faced through the first 319 innings of his big league career. He chopped his walk rate to just 6.5 per cent last year. He’s throwing a curveball more often now, offering a pitch he can use to challenge lefties and complement his bread-and-butter fastball and slider (opponents hit just .200 overall against his curve in 2017).

The Rockies finally broke through last season thanks largely to the organization’s all-encompassing emphasis on arm strength, and Gray was the poster child for that mile-high pitching surprise.

Unfortunately the elephant in the room remains his home park. Gray hasn’t just posted significantly higher ERAs and batting averages on balls in play due to the pitching menace that is Coors Field. The more silent killer is the effect that Coors can have on health. Maybe Gray suffers a foot injury that limits him to just 20 starts no matter where he pitched last year.

But it’s hard to argue against Colorado’s altitude making it harder for pitchers to rest and recover between outings. We adjust for park effects to understand that Gray’s seemingly decent-but-not-great 3.67 ERA was actually a terrific 27 percent better than league average last year once normalized. We also get to daydream about how flashy Gray’s numbers might look if he pitched anywhere else.

No. 28: Byron Buxton, OF, Twins (Last Year: 44)

Buxton is an all-world defender, a human vacuum cleaner who’ll make diving catches in front of himself, running grabs at the wall and everything in between. According to Baseball Info Solutions’ Defensive Runs Saved, Buxton was about as valuable in the field last year as Corey Seager was at the plate.

Buxton’s speed, athleticism, and incredible defence have always been a given, with the what-if scenario being: what if he finally figures out how to hit?

We may soon find out. Buxton closed out 2017 on fire, batting a torrid .300/.347/.546 in the second half. His batting eye still needs major work, with Buxton striking out nearly five times for every one walk even during that terrific second-half run. But he still showed improvements last year in both his swinging-strike rate and his ability to lay off pitches out of the strike zone. Given how stellar he is at every other facet of the game, if Buxton can approach those second-half numbers over a full season, he becomes an immediate MVP candidate.

No. 27 Vladimir Guerrero Jr., 3B, Blue Jays (Last Year: Not Ranked)

No. 26 Shohei Ohtani, Babe Ruth, Angels (Last Year: Not Ranked)

The rise of ultra-skilled big men such as Karl-Anthony Towns, Joel Embiid, and Kristaps Porzingis launched a new term in NBA circles: “unicorn.” In baseball circles, a hitter who walks far more often than he strikes out and dominates high-A ball at age 18 is rare enough to earn the same horned nickname. And if there was ever a baseball unicorn, a player who’s primed to become the first since Babe Ruth to star as both a high-upside pitcher and a lineup regular with serious power, would be that guy.

In Guerrero’s case, the path to stardom depends on him harnessing that supernatural plate discipline, strong frame and the pedigree of a Hall of Famer’s son into consistent power production (he hit a fairly modest 13 home runs at A-ball last season) and a predictable defensive position (he’s a half-decent gloveman at third base, but many feel he’ll end up playing a less demanding position in the future).

As for Ohtani, it’s impossible not to salivate at his potential. He throws four different pitches for strikes, led by a fastball that can reach the high-90s and a devastating splitter. His offensive game is only slightly less promising, with a combination of power and speed that’s exceedingly rare in its own right.

Skeptics will wonder about his lack of track record when it comes to racking up big innings counts, as well as his high strikeout rates at the plate. Read through the frustration that the Dodgers felt after falling short on their efforts to land the prized two-way star, though, and you begin to see the unicorn potential here.