Spring Speculation: 7 Players Who Had a Monster March in 2024, And How Their Cards 🚀

When there is excitement, there are flipping opportunities (and perhaps nothing more—remember Trey Lipscomb's breakout last year)? Spring spells the start of the new year...and a ton of excitement.

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This is not buying or investment advice. I’m simply reporting the data I’m seeing. Please do your own research and make your own decisions. Just because cards have increased in value up to this point, it doesn’t mean they will continue to do so.

I’m getting all of this data from either the the Market Movers or Card Hedge platform. There are not my platforms, I’m simply a user and affiliate of them. If you want to do your own research, you can grab a free trial to Market Movers with code BALLCARDGENIUS. You’d also get 20% off of your membership forever if you wanted to continue once your trial has been completed. You can also grab a free trial for Card Hedge as well.

These tools aren’t perfect; no tool is. I’ve seen instances where a graded card was being included in the raw numbers, which might cause a huge spike in value. So trust, but verify.

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Spring training is often a proving ground, and a time for players to shake off the rust, fight for roster spots, or make a statement before Opening Day.

And of course, every year, a few players steal the show with eye-opening performances, whether it’s by launching moonshots, racking up Ks, or posting video game-like stat lines.

But what did that mean for their card markets (and how can we use this knowledge to speculate on this spring’s potential breakouts)?

Now, I’ve talked about speculation before, and I generally don’t do it…but I like to do so in the short term. Meaning, buying a card at the beginning of the year and hoping that player wins World Series MVP just isn’t for me…there is way too much that can happen over the course of the season.

But for spring? You can see cards shoot up in an instant, and I like that.

You still won’t see me spending hundreds of dollars on a proven talent, and I’ll practice risk aversiveness as much as possible. I also just won’t buy on a whim. I’ll wait for something to happen, tracking cards, and hoping to pounce on some still set on “yesterday’s” prices in hopes of making a quick profit.

Because as you’ll see…while these cards went up, they certainly came down. Buy at the right time, sell at the right time.

1. Oneil Cruz, 7 HR

Already a fixture as a top prospect and hot rookie, Oneil Cruz didn’t disappoint with his 2024 Spring Training Campaign, where he tied for the lead in homers with 7 total.

While it’s tough to zero in on the Spring Training spike when you look over the course of a few years, you can see the things definitely picked up, hitting over $200 with his 2016 Bowman Chrome Auto in late March.

2. Spencer Jones, 2HR in Spring Breakout 3/16

While not a Spring Training game, per se, Spencer Jones broke out in his Spring Breakout game on 3/16 with 2 homers and more.

His 2023 Bowman Chrome auto hit $400 around that time, a huge increase from the sub-$200 sales in late Feb…it last sold for $110.

3. Kyle Stowers, 7 HR

Stowers hit 7 homers last spring, and 3 of them came in the same game (the first time that had happened in a Spring Training Game since 2018.

Here you can see the jump, as his 2019 Bowman Chrome auto hopped from around $5-$10 to about $30 in March.

Things didn’t pan out with the crowded Orioles, and Stowers now finds himself with a good chance to become a name for the Marlins (at 27 years old).

4. Trey Lipscomb, .400 Avg

Perhaps the breakout story of the spring, from what I can remember—Trey Lipscomb hit .400 and made his debut when Nick Senzel went down with injury.

His 2022 Bowman Chrome Auto was knocking on the $40 door when things were going good, but quickly cooled down. He hit .200 over 190 at-bats in 2024, and the card last sold for less than $8.

5. Colton Cowser, 6 HR, .304 Avg.

While Cowser didn’t lead the spring in homers or average, he had an amazing showing with 6 homers and a .304 average.

Hovering around $40-$60 before the jump, his 2021 Bowman Chrome auto rocketed to $200 territory in mid-April where he cracked the Orioles roster and earned an early Player of the Week honor.

6. Wyatt Langford, 20 RBI

Speaking of all-around monster springs, Langford’s stats were a bit unreal:

• 6 Homers

• 20 RBI

• .365 Average

Already a big name, Langford’s Bowman Chrome auto was selling for close to $500 in March. He went down with injury in early June, and his last sale on that same card was $172.

7. Christian Encarnacion-Strand, .784 SLG

Entering his sophomore season, Encarnacion-Strand punished baseballs last spring, with 5 homers, a .333 average and ST-leading .784 SLG.

As you can see above, the high-point for his 2021 Bowman Chrome auto came around $150 in 2023, and saw a bit of a resurgence in Spring 2024 with a top sale around $100 and settling at about $80.

All of this before the card plummeted to around $30 upon Encarnacion-Strand suffering a broken wrist, and then even lower as the season went on. The card has recently moved back up a bit, last selling for $25.50.