On Aug. 2 last year, the Washington Nationals sent Juan Soto and Josh Bell to the San Diego Padres in exchange for Luke Voit and a host of prospects in MacKenzie Gore, CJ Abrams, Robert Hassell, Jarlin Susana and James Wood.

Voit is no longer with the Nationals and was never considered a key part of the trade. The last three players listed are still in the minors. Hassell entered the season ranked as the 57th best prospect by Baseball America, 35th by MLB.com and 66th by Baseball Prospectus while Wood is ranked 11th, 17th and 3rd, respectively. Susana is only 19 years old, so it will be a while to see if he ever makes it to the Nationals. much less as a top 100 prospect.

Key Piece

Gore and Abrams are currently playing for the Nationals and were key parts of the deal. I like Abrams, and for deep dynasty leagues, he is a keeper. But I like Gore a whole lot more.

Selected as the third overall pick in the 2017 draft out of Whiteville High School in Whiteville, North Carolina, Gore was already a top 100 prospect in 2018, ranking 26th (BA), 19th (MLB) and 29th (BP). By the end of 2021 Gore was a top 10 prospect.

Now in his second season in the majors, has Gore lived up to the lofty prospect rankings? Not really. In ESPN and Yahoo leagues, many players don’t consider Gore worthy of a roster spot as he is rostered in 21% of ESPN leagues and 48% of Yahoo leagues.

Does that mean he is not a solid dynasty keeper?

Those roster percentages don’t take into account dynasty leagues. In Fantrax leagues, Gore is rostered by 94% of teams, a number that about right as I think Gore is only scratching the surface of what he can do.