Trading needs a bit of an overhaul

[wildcardcharlie]

First off, love OOTP every year. Best franchise mode in sports gaming, bar none.

One area I still find lacking though is trading. I've tried all the different trade difficulties and preferences (favor vets/prospects etc), but it just doesn't feel right to me.

I think it's because there's not enough of teams adapting to their situations. For example, sometimes I realize I'm getting to the end of my championship window with some aging players with high salaries and I'm not gonna be able to compete for much longer, so I decide it's time to start selling off some of my more valuable commodities.

So around the deadline I'll start looking to trade a middle of the order bat I have, let's say an aging (age 30, 31) Christian Yelich with 1 or 2 years left on his contract.

Now in the real MLB, a middle of the order bat that is producing at a high level still, even leaving the prime of their career, would net some nice prospects. The most recent example I could think of would be the Goldschmidt trade. He went for two top 100 prospects and a projected regular starter in Andy Young.

But in OOTP, it's a different story. When I'm selling off top level veteran players, I can't seem to get any value for it. At most, they'll send me a good reliever, or a high priced aging veteran at a different position which doesn't make any sense for me in my situation.

I would assume this is because teams are always trying not to take on more salary than they are giving up, or because the trade engine always values prospects very highly. Which it should, but in certain situations, they should value them less.

Like when a team is in win now mode, they should be a lot more willing to take on additional salary and a lot more willing to give up their top prospects.

Yet that just doesn't seem to be the case in my experience. I can't get top prospects without giving up WAY too much major league talent. Like we're talking having to trade an ace and a middle of the order bat in the same deal to get one top prospect. It's just not realistic. Or, even worse, they want my budding superstar 23 year old pre-arbitration CF in exchange for some of their good prospects. It's just not realistic.

Believe me, I don't want an easy trade experience where I can fleece the AI. There's no fun in that. But I do want the ability to rebuild a team by exchanging my productive veterans that can help a team win a World Series now in exchange for prospects, because it's a core part of how teams build their future in the real MLB.