I’ll go ahead and say I don’t agree that its a certainty you get more for Vlad now vs the deadline.
Pretty much any team that wants/needs Vlad could’ve signed Walker or Alonso instead.
At the deadline, Vlad might be the only 1B option available (and maybe best bat available) to a competing team. You see teams get desperate as hell at the deadline and don’t usually see those lopsided trades happening during the offseason.
Vlad’s highest value was last trade deadline, for the reasons above + an extra year of control. Like, astronomically higher i’d say.
I don’t think the return package would be much different right now vs at the deadline this year.