Spring Training Standouts: Buy or Sell the Surging Card Market

With Spring Training in full swing and the baseball card market making moves, we’ll look at some players whose prices have seen movement given their play so far in the past few weeks. Will these guys finally become hobby darlings or is it a flash in the pan?

Curtis Mead – Tampa Bay Rays

Mead is largely overshadowed by fellow 2024 rookie shield holder Junior Caminero, but he has been nothing short of amazing these first two weeks. Mead’s currently hitting .778 with an OPS of 1.810. I know it’s not sustainable but something that definitely has collectors’ attention.

You could have bought his 2022 Bowman 1st Chrome Auto in a PSA 10 back in December, you could have gotten it for as low as $14.52. With some recent sales reaching almost $100, it’s quite the uptick but play it cautiously as he doesn’t have a clear path to playing time with Caminero likely playing 3B and Brandon Lowe entrenched at 2B.

Michael Busch – Chicago Cubs

Busch was a chase early in 2019 Bowman Draft, but with the Dodgers’ talent it was tough for him to finally breakthrough until 2023 with some less than stellar results. He flourished last season after a trade to Chicago and is picking up right where he left off hitting .440 with an OPS of 1.220 while driving in 9 runs so far.

His PSA 10 1st Bowman Autos from that 2019 set were running you around $25 when the season ended back in November and now they’re selling for more than double that amount. Busch is going to be smack in the middle a very good Cubs lineup so for that price I don’t see how you could go wrong.

Brett Baty – New York Mets

Much like Busch, Baty is from 2019 Bowman Draft. Unlike Busch, he was drafted out of high school and is still with the organization who drafted him. He was one of the chase names as a rookie in 2023 products, but fell out of favor last year in the hobby after being sent down last season.

Currently hitting .444 this spring with a pair of homers, Baty truthers are looking for one last gasp. His PSA 10 1st Bowman autos are trading for around $80-$100 which is way up from just last month where they could be had for about half that amount. Baty doesn’t have a clear path to at-bats and is still considered a fringe roster candidate, but he has the upside given the New York market plus a Mets unit expected to make some noise in 2025.