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MLB's most valuable commodity isn't sluggers with prodigious power, innings-eating workhorses or flame-throwing relievers. It's prospects, players in their teens and early 20s who have yet to establish themselves at the game's highest level.

Teams are loathe to trade them, for prospects represent not only hope for the future but an inexpensive way to build a roster—at least in the short term. We need only look at recent success stories in Chicago, Kansas City and Pittsburgh for proof of that.

Just three weeks remain in the 2016 MLB regular season, and while a handful of teams appear to be locks for the postseason, there are still a number of playoff spots up for grabs.

The Chicago Cubs and Washington Nationals both look like safe bets to win their respective divisions, while the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants will duke it out in the NL West and the St. Louis Cardinals and New York Mets will fight for an NL wild-card spot.

We've reached the point in MLB's regular season when all duds are no longer created equal. With September pennant races and furious battles for positioning in the wild-card races ongoing, every game takes on more importance than it did earlier in the season.

Perhaps no single player can be more valuable to a team’s success in the postseason than Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw.

While he had a disappointing outing on Friday in his first start after more than a two-month layoff due to a disc herniation, a healthy Kershaw can only positively affect the direction of the Dodgers’ season.

Which other MLB teams saw their road to the playoffs change course?

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The MLB playoff push is reaching a fever pitch, but the minor league playoffs are underway at most levels. As such, it's a good time to look at the breakout prospects of 2016.

Every team has a handful of elite prospects that casual fans know by name, but without fail there are always a handful of relatively unknown players in each system who push their way into the top-prospect conversation.

The divide between MLB contenders and pretenders is smaller than ever, increasing the impact of each contributor on the roster.

As many as 19 teams are in the postseason running with less than a month remaining. Most of them can thank the new wild-card format, as no division outside the American League East hosts an intense neck-and-neck race.

With so many teams ravaged by injuries, clubs are learning the importance of depth. No one star can carry a team to the World Series. Just ask the Los Angeles Angels.

When September rolls around, it means rosters have expanded and we're now less than a month away from the start of the 2016 MLB postseason.

The Chicago Cubs, Texas Rangers, Cleveland Indians and Washington Nationals can rest easy knowing they're all but a lock to make the playoffs and safe bets to win their respective divisions. Outside of those four teams, there's still a lot to be sorted out.

Right now, New York Yankees general manager Brian Cashman looks to be a genius.

He had arguably the best July of any baseball executive. Cashman traded several of the team’s talented veterans for a haul of prospects that now give New York one of baseball’s best minor league systems.

He was able to get Alex Rodriguez to retire and Mark Teixeira and Brian McCann to accept lesser roles all to make way for a group of talented young players who have the Yankees back into playoff contention.

The push for the MLB playoffs is now in full swing with roughly five weeks remaining in the regular season.

Whether a team is contending for a postseason spot or simply looking to play spoiler while evaluating its young talent, the month of September is always an exciting one.

A trip to the corner store to see the candyman might find someone walking out with a pack of Milk Duds. A trip to Citi Field to see the Grandyman (Curtis Granderson) is likely to find fans of the New York Mets walking out having seen an expensive dud.