Prospect (sports)

In sports, a prospect is any player whose rights are owned by a professional team, but who has yet to surpass a threshold where they achieve rookie status (as defined by their respective league), or is not established with the team yet. Prospects can sometimes be assigned to farm teams, or loaned to lower ranked teams. They may also decide to go back to college to play.

Major-league professional sports teams also trade prospects, by themselves, with draft picks, or with current major-leaguers, in order to acquire another prospect or an established major league player. Teams that trade away several of their star players for other teams' prospects are sometimes said to be having a fire sale.