What do baseball players Jerry Dybzinski and Delmon Young have in common? You could probably categorize most responses into the following umbrellas:

1. They both played in MLB, and I know this because I'm old enough to have Dybzinski's baseball card.

2. I remember Delmon Young, but who in the sam-heck is Jerry Dybzinski?

3. Trade trees!

For our purposes, the correct answer would be No. 3. Dybzinski, a journeyman infielder who compiled 2.0 bWAR between 1980 and 1985, and Young, the No. 1 pick of the 2003 amateur draft, are at the root of two of baseball's most famous trade trees.

The trade/transaction tree concept is a fascinating one. One trade is turned into another, bringing back multiple players, a couple of whom are flipped, and so on, as each subsequent move from that initial trade -- the root -- spawns a new branch and, presumably, yields additional fruit for the team who made the original move.

Exploring trade trees in the digital age, via the magical hyperlinks at Baseball Reference, is both a great way for a baseball fan to kill some time and a way to lose a massive chunk of your waking hours, and perhaps some hours in which you should not be awake.

There have been quite a few attempts to organize trade tree-related data, such as MLB Trade Trees, which hasn't been updated for a few years, and the all-sports resource TradeChains. One person, "Wilytics," claims to have uncovered all 2,487 trade trees in history, per his criteria as to what constitutes a trade tree, and is worth checking out.

However, instead of trying to be definitive about what is at heart just a fun way to look at trades and baseball history -- and realizing that trying to sort through all the data myself was beyond my capability and way beyond my available time -- I decided to run through some of my favorite trees, past and present. With the 2026 trade deadline looming on Aug. 3, some of the active trees could sprout new branches. But others might wither as untraded players on expiring deals head into free agency -- unless they yield compensation, which might be enough to keep a tree alive.

If there is one lesson to be gleaned from this venture into the trade tree forest, it's this: Eventually, just like our real arboreal companions, all trade trees die out. But it can take a long time for them to do so, and while they blossom, they can become amazing things.

The first notable trade tree

We're not talking about the tree of life here, but it's pretty interesting.

A qualifier: There were some trade trees in the pre-1900 era, but between the incompleteness of the record and complicating factors like teams and leagues folding and merging all the time, we'll just set that era aside.

The first notable trade tree of the modern era sprouted on Dec. 15, 1900, when the Cincinnati Reds dealt Christy Mathewson, whom they had recently taken in the Rule 5 draft, to the then-New York Giants for Amos Rusie in a swap of Hall of Fame pitchers. Rusie was at the end of his career, making just three appearances for Cincinnati.

Mathewson, of course, became one of the game's greatest pitchers, piling up 100.9 bWAR for his manager (and housemate) John McGraw. Years later, McGraw sent "Big Six" back to the Reds so Matthewson could fulfill his desire to manage. McGraw got back Buck Herzog, who was later traded for Larry Doyle and Jesse Barnes, who was later traded for a couple of players, including Hank Gowdy, who stayed with the Giants until 1925. It was only then that the original Rusie tree withered and died out, after a quarter century.

In the end, McGraw coughed up a good bit of the value he got from nabbing Matty, as he included Edd Roush in the deal that sent Mathewson back to Cincinnati 1916. Roush was early in his Hall of Fame career at that point, but he hit .334 over 11 seasons and rolled up 40.7 bWAR for the Reds before McGraw reacquired him in 1927.

The Delmon Young tree

The richness of the Young trade tree was chronicled by Sam Miller for ESPN ... in August 2018. That was a long time ago. It was before the pandemic. Konnor Griffin was just 12 years old. Miller hinted at the time that, as amazing as the tree was at that point, it might not be done producing. And so it wasn't. In fact, it's very much still alive.

TradeChains has the total yield for the Tampa Bay Rays in the tree at 71.5 bWAR through the end of last season. The Minnesota Twins netted 0.2 bWAR in their part of the tree for Young and other components of the deal. The lesson: You don't trade with the Rays.

A person can lose an hour sifting through the branches of this one tree, but the main thread that concerns its ongoing sustainability starts with the Rays getting Matt Garza back as part of the original deal for Young. Garza was later sent to the Chicago Cubs for a package that included Chris Archer. Seven years after that, the Rays sent Archer to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Tyler Glasnow, Austin Meadows and a player to be named later (PTNL), who turned out to be Shane Baz.

That deal was like Miracle-Gro for an already prospering tree. Glasnow, Meadows and Baz were all productive for the Rays before being parlayed into more future value:

• Meadows was traded to the Detroit Tigers for Isaac Paredes, who in turn was later sent to the Cubs for Ty Johnson, Hunter Bigge and Christopher Morel. Johnson and Bigge are both still in the Rays organization, while Morel didn't work out. But the Meadows branch remains alive.

• Baz was flipped to the Baltimore Orioles for four minor leaguers, including catcher Caden Bodine, who is hitting .351 across three leagues this season and is Kiley McDaniel's fourth-ranked Rays prospect. The Rays also acquired a compensation pick, No. 33 in the recent draft, with which they took infielder Taj Marchand. The Baz branch is very active.

• Finally, when the Rays sent Glasnow to the Los Angeles Dodgers, Tampa Bay brought back Jonny DeLuca and Ryan Pepiot, both current big leaguers and steady contributors when healthy. Though Pepiot will miss this season because of surgery, the Glasnow branch remains fruitful.

This being the Rays, surely some of these players will eventually be dealt for more club control, as was the case with Baz, Meadows and Glasnow. Thus, there is no end in sight for the Delmon Young trade tree, which, as much as any other set of transactions, serves to illustrate just how the Rays have flourished with limited resources in the way that they have.

The amazing Jerry Dybzinski tree

The Young trade tree has spawned a legion of online followers, but it's not the oldest or most fecund of active trade trees. But the one that is -- the one that started with Dybzinski -- is stuffed with even more branches and has yielded more fruit, if fruit is the metaphorical equivalent of baseball WAR.

I referred to Dybzinski as a journeyman, as he played for three teams in six seasons through 1985. But he was traded just once, one for one, in a deal that sent him from Cleveland to the Chicago White Sox for infielder Pat Tabler on, fittingly, April 1, 1983. Dybzinski was released by the White Sox exactly two years later, amazingly also on April Fool's Day.

Tabler was a very good player, so just on the surface of the trade, it was a loss for the White Sox. Dybzinski was a regular contributor on the Winning Ugly ChiSox, the 1983 club that romped to the American League West title under Tony La Russa, so it wasn't a complete wash. But it was pretty close.

Meanwhile, boy did that Tabler seed flourish for Cleveland. You kind of have to lose yourself in that tree to fully appreciate it, but I'll try to hit the main points:

Tabler enjoyed five-plus seasons for Cleveland, making the AL All-Star team in 1987. In 1988, he was traded to a Kansas City Royals team trying to pry open a nearly-closed window of contention in exchange for Bud Black. Black became a free agent after that season but re-upped with Cleveland to keep the sprouting tree going. In 1990, he was flipped to the Toronto Blue Jays for Mauro Gozzo and two PTNLs, who became Alex Sanchez and Steve Cummings.

Cleveland didn't get any direct yield from that initial Black deal in the form of MLB production. The Gozzo and Cummings branches quickly died out. Sanchez, though he never played in the majors for Cleveland, was sent back to the Blue Jays for pitcher Willie Blair and the tree grew some more.

Blair went 2-3 in one season for Cleveland, early in what became a 12-year big league career with eight different clubs. His next stop after Cleveland was Houston, who acquired Blair at the 1991 winter meetings with catcher Ed Taubensee in exchange for sub-replacement utility player Dave Rohde and an inexperienced outfielder who at the time was better known for a college basketball career at Arizona in which he played for a powerhouse team headlined by Sean Elliott and Steve Kerr. I'm talking, of course, about Kenny Lofton.

And that's the thing with most of the great trade trees: They kind of limp along for the most part and suddenly shoot up because of a move like this. Lofton became a Hall of Fame-level player for some of the best teams in Cleveland history. He was so good for so long that when Cleveland traded him in 1997, he brought back two marquee players in David Justice and Marquis Grissom.

Remember: All this started with Jerry Dybzinski.

The Justice and Grissom branches turned into multiple good and recognizable players, but it's the Justice side that kept this going. He was traded to the New York Yankees in 2000 for three players, including Jake Westbrook. Westbrook was part of the three-team deal in 2010 that got Corey Kluber from San Diego to Cleveland.

Then, after nine seasons and two Cy Youngs, Kluber was sent to Texas in 2019 for Delino DeShields and -- big sigh here -- Emmanuel Clase. DeShields, still active on the independent league circuit, left Cleveland as a free agent. Clase became perhaps the game's most dominant closer before his career was put on indefinite hiatus and turned into a cautionary tale.

Because of that unfortunate turn, the Dybzinski trade tree that was planted -- fittingly -- on April 1, 1983, is likely in its final stages. If Clase doesn't make it back to the Guardians so he can be traded for future value, that's it. According to TradeChains, Cleveland has yielded around 130 bWAR from Dybzinski over the past 43 years. It might be the most valuable trade tree in modern baseball history.

The tallest tree

Vern Stephens was a shortstop from the 1940s and 50s who was one of the best-hitting infielders of his era. He was the star of the only St. Louis Browns club to win a pennant (1944) and, as Ted Williams' teammate with the Boston Red Sox, drove in 440 runs over three seasons from 1948 to 1950.

He was dealt by the Browns to Boston in 1947 along with pitcher Jack Kramer for six players and a chunk of cash. Some trade tree aficionados actually refer to this as the Kramer tree, but it's close -- and Stephens is the higher-profile player. We won't get into any of the six players Boston traded to get Stephens and Kramer, but that sextet turned into the roots of what seems to be baseball's longest-lasting trade tree, one that kept bearing fruit for the Browns franchise for more than four decades after they relocated to Baltimore and became the Orioles.

The tree sprouted a wide-rooted base during the two decades after the original Stephens trade, but in 1965, one of its branches led to outfielder Dick Simpson, one of the components of the trade that sent Frank Robinson from the Reds to the Orioles. Robinson continued his Hall of Fame career for six stellar seasons for Earl Weaver's Birds, then was traded to the Dodgers in 1971 for a package of players that included young pitcher Doyle Alexander, who pitched in the majors until 1988.

Alexander established himself as a big leaguer under Weaver and then was part of a massive deal in 1976 that sent Rick Dempsey, Tippy Martinez, Rudy May and Scott McGregor to Baltimore. We're now nearly 30 years beyond the Stephens deal and 23 years after the St. Louis Browns ceased to exist.

May was traded to Montreal, which yielded Don Stanhouse, who left the Orioles as a free agent, yielding a compensation pick that became Ken Dixon. Dixon was flipped to Seattle in 1987 for Mike Morgan, who two years later was sent to the Dodgers for Mike Devereaux, who remained with the Orioles until 1994.

Alas, Devereaux became a free agent and brought back no compensation, and so, after 47 years, the Stephens tree died out. According to MLB Trade Trees, 106 players owned branches at various times. Think of it as a redwood in the trade tree forest.

Most promising active trees

There are always young trade trees worth tending to. Here are a few promising ones to watch:

Moises Alou, Florida/Miami Marlins

This one dates back to the breakup of the 1997 champion Florida Marlins. As part of that, Alou was shipped to Houston in a deal that yielded three nondescript players for the Marlins. But one of those players -- pitcher Mark Johnson, the player to be named later in the deal -- sprouted quite a few branches.

Johnson was part of the deal that brought Mike Lowell to the Marlins, and Lowell was later traded in a deal that landed Hanley Ramirez from Boston. Ramirez was sent to the Dodgers for Nathan Eovaldi, who was later dealt for reliever David Phelps and infielder Martin Prado. The Marlins used Phelps as part of the package to get standout righty Pablo Lopez.

Three years ago, the Marlins sent Lopez to the Twins, with whom he remains, for batting champ Luis Arraez. Arraez was traded two years ago to San Diego for a package of players that includes current Marlins center fielder Jakob Marsee. For now, Marsee is the best hope for the Marlins growing this tree further.

It's not the most high-value tree, but it's getting pretty long in the tooth.

Mark Teixeira, Texas Rangers

The Rangers' 2007 deadline trade of Teixeira to the Atlanta Braves was a massive deal at the time and is still bearing fruit for Texas nearly two decades later -- it's up to 80.1 bWAR through last season, per TradeChains.

Elvis Andrus, Neftali Feliz, Matt Harrison and Jarrod Saltalamacchia were the primary components of the deal for Texas and, perhaps surprisingly, it's the Harrison branch that has kept the tree alive.

Harrison, of course, was very good for the Rangers and pitched for the 2011 AL pennant winners. He was traded at the 2015 deadline for Jake Diekman and Cole Hamels from the Philadelphia Phillies but never pitched for them.

Texas later traded Hamels to the Cubs for a group that included minor leaguer Alexander Ovalles. Ovalles never played in the majors but was included in the 2020 trade with the Rays that brought Nathaniel Lowe to Texas.

After helping the Rangers to a title, Lowe was traded to the Washington Nationals in late 2024 for Robert Garcia. Garcia, when healthy, is currently one of the Rangers' better relievers and is keeping the Teixeira tree alive.

A.J. Pierzynski, Minnesota Twins

The colorful Pierzynski remains well-known as a TV commentator and podcast host, but he's also the root of an aging trade tree.

Pierzynski was drafted and developed by Minnesota and played 5½ seasons for the Twins before moving to the Giants at the 2004 deadline.

The main thread of the tree goes like this: Pierzynski for Francisco Liriano, who went to the White Sox for Eduardo Escobar, who went to the Arizona Diamondbacks for Jhoan Duran, who went to the Phillies for Eduardo Tait and the promising Mick Abel, both of whom are still in Minnesota's system.

Thus, it's up to Abel to do well enough to get traded by the Twins and keep the Pierzynski tree alive.