In keeper leagues, especially those with minor league drafts, there are a number of ways for the contenders or pretenders to augment their roster and a lot of chances for the rebuilding teams to build for the future as well.

This week, we will look at several trades from a very deep, 11-team AL-only league that has a deep farm system - 139 minor leaguers owned by the 11 teams after the five-man draft held at the conclusion of the auction.

This league doesn’t allow trades in April in order to give everyone a fair opportunity to assess their team’s chances, so the first weekend in May is very interesting each year.

Here is one of those trades:

Team A traded Jacoby Ellsbury, Stephen Vogt, Kyle Lobstein and their 4th round minor league draft pick in 2016 to

Team B for Geovany Soto, Zach Putnam, minor leaguers Dylan Bundy, D.J. Peterson and Luiz Gohara and their 2nd round 2016 minor league draft pick.

Team B was now a real contender but with the largest minor league list had plenty of ammo to make this trade and Team A got three prospects and a draft upgrade. This was one of three trades Team A made to rebuild for 2016 and beyond during that first trade week.

Here is another trade – one from late-May that didn’t include any future draft picks:

Team C traded Austin Jackson and Colby Rasmus to

Team D for Craig Gentry and minor leaguer Jonathan Singleton.

And there are smaller trades as well, sometimes buoyed by the high minor league draft pick or by a prospect:

Team F trades Danny Farquhar and their 2016 1st round minor league draft pick to

Team G for Jose Quintana and their 2016 4th round minor league draft pick, and

Team G trades Rajai Davis to

Team H for Carlos Sanchez and minor leaguer Gary Sanchez (NYY).

And one more from that league in mid-June:

Team B traded Chase Whitley, minor leaguers Luis Severino and Daz Cameron along with their 2016 1st round minor league draft pick to

Team C for Adrian Beltre, Joakim Soria, Mark Buehrle and their 2016 3rd round minor league draft pick.

So, Team B adds more for this year and Team C adds more for the future.

Finally, here is one from a different AL-only league, an old school 4x4 league, that went down at the All-Star break:

Team 1 was in 2nd place, four points out of first and four points ahead of third place. They were first in HR, RBI, W, and SV but middle of the pack in SB but with the potential to gain three or four points. Team 2 was buried in the bottom portion of the league due to lack of production from Robinson Cano and injuries to Victor Martinez and Jacoby Ellsbury. So the original trade proposal was Kole Calhoun and minor leaguer Dylan Bundy for Ellsbury. After a counter of Ellsbury and a pitcher for Calhoun and Dellin Betances, the final trade was:

Team 2 traded Ellsbury (an expiring $29 contract) and Adam Warren ($8 first year contract) to

Team 1 for Calhoun ($15 with two years left) and Betances ($1 with one year left).

The contending team got the steals they need and a useful pitcher while the rebuilding team got a good hitter on a good contract for two more years and an excellent reliever for next year.

Next week, we will look at some trades from an NL-only league with different rules. {jcomments on}