Cade Smith

The card rack

FlagshipCade Smith #CPA-CS · 2025 Bowman Chrome Prospect Autograph · 169 recent sales 7N ▲0%

$8.00Raw$16.82PSA 9$40.00PSA 10$52.00BGS 10PSA 10 · 45 nights

Live on eBay now · asking, not sold · as of 2026-08-28 · paid links

$7.73Ungraded$7.73Ungraded$8.53Ungraded

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The rookieCade Smith #US134 · 2024 Topps Update · 78 recent sales 7N ▲0%

$1.10Raw$7.00PSA 9$33.56PSA 10$44.00BGS 10PSA 10 · 43 nights

Live on eBay now · asking, not sold · as of 2026-08-28 · paid links

$0.99Ungraded$1.00Ungraded$1.42Ungraded

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Paid link — as an eBay Partner, FVR earns from qualifying purchases. · Flagship = his most-traded card (the market’s reference); the rookie = the top card of his first card year. As of August 28, 2026 · trend is FVR's own nightly archive · prices via SportsCardsPro · what these terms mean

Scout’s note

A 16th-round pick out of Vancouver who debuted on opening day this year, Smith has put up one of the best relief seasons in the sport: 30 saves, a 2.41 ERA, 73 strikeouts in 52.1 innings. The board grade stays in a drawer. Our stuff model is stability-tested but not outcome-validated, so no big-league arm gets a flag — not even this one. The ERA-FIP luck gap did clear the bar, though, and we file arm regression calls by hand from it. The science comes first. What is on the field says the arm matters regardless.

Current signals

The read: Smith is in the Index ungraded, on purpose: our stuff model is stability-tested but not outcome-validated, so no big-league arm gets a board flag from it — not even one of the best seasons in the sport. (Calls are another matter: the ERA-FIP luck gap did clear the bar, and we file arm regression calls by hand from it.) The page is here because the player matters; the board grade waits for the science.

WAR (season · MLB calc)

1.7

A market fact, not an engine read: what a club decided about him, on the season before this one. Figures from Cot’s, as of August 7, 2026.

2026 salary

$0.82Mest

Tax hit

$0.82M

Service time

2 yr 0 d

Options left

3 / 3

Cash and the tax hit are two different rulebooks and are never subtracted from one another — see the payroll board for his club, Cleveland Guardians.

A second set of books

The same contract, read by MLB Spreadsheets (Ethan Hullihen), as of August 20, 2026. We keep two sources on this because one source cannot check itself.

Tax AAV

$0.82M

Guaranteed

$0.82M

Term

1 yr

His class

Pre-Arb

The tax AAV above is his number under the CBA’s own rulebook, not the average we work out from Cot’s total. On a contract with deferred money the two come apart on purpose — and neither is subtracted from the other.

Collect Cade Smith

If the signal is right, the cardboard usually finds out later. Current listings:

High-end listings ($75+) →

More than one big-leaguer has worn this name, so the searches say “Guardians” to keep the other one out of your results.

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Not financial advice. We take positions only after publication — never before. Misses stay on the record.

The Bureau on Cade Smith

The scouting press, in their own words