If Ward spends this entire year for Woo, and does decently well, I bet he'll be on the team next year even at 28. Its hard to enter the prospect universe when you are north of 25 and were never considered a top prospect before, but its possible. I certainly agree age is taken into account. If you try out for WWE and do decent and you are 19 they would be more interested in you than if you were 37.
I see what you are saying, and Im starting to agree. The only thing is that I dont think its a knock or anything based on anything "going-forward". By that I mean, I dont think they are like "yeah but heres why we dont think hes a future MLB player", I think the fact that hes not on the team is more because of hte past. Its hard to rise from off all prsopects lists/radars wh osigned for a chicken sandwich to on a breakout / future games in one spring. Its harder to make it if you are 27. So I get he has all that working against him.
But this is more than just a fun story. Ward has real trade value TODAY. And his soxprospects page is coming. Id put him at like #17. ANd if he was 20 years old he'd be like #8.