Trade Talk

[aks62]

Since we're rapidly approaching the MLB trade deadline — and I had some questions about others' experience with AI trading — I thought I'd make an encompassing post to see what settings have given folks their desired outcomes. I still haven't been able to nail down the trade settings exactly to where I want them from a realism standpoint, so I'm curious if others have succeeded and, if so, how.

My questions for everyone:

1. Where do you set your AI trade difficulty and preference sliders?
2. What are AI player evaluation weights you use?
3. How realistic do you find your settings to be, relative to MLB? For example: How often do you feel you can trade a star for a fair prospect package, trade a fair package for a star, take on an AI team's salary dump for minimal value, and get an AI team to take on yours for minimal value? (You don't have to answer all of these; I'm just trying to add questions for context to frame the initial/overarching question.)
4. Do you use Hard Mode, and if so, what's worked best for you?
5. Do you find the trade deadline day experience to be realistic and/or exciting? What do you do to build excitement within it for yourself and your roster building process? If you don't use it, why not?
6. What house rules have you implemented for yourself with respect to trade fairness, whether by toggling a setting or abiding by an honor code?
7. Where do you think the game still needs to improve on its trading experience?

I'll answer first in a comment to follow. Looking forward to hearing from others.

[aks62]

Originally Posted by aks62

Since we're rapidly approaching the MLB trade deadline — and I had some questions about others' experience with AI trading — I thought I'd make an encompassing post to see what settings have given folks their desired outcomes. I still haven't been able to nail down the trade settings exactly to where I want them from a realism standpoint, so I'm curious if others have succeeded and, if so, how.

My questions for everyone:

1. Where do you set your AI trade difficulty and preference sliders?
2. What are AI player evaluation weights you use?
3. How realistic do you find your settings to be, relative to MLB? For example: How often do you feel you can trade a star for a fair prospect package, trade a fair package for a star, take on an AI team's salary dump for minimal value, and get an AI team to take on yours for minimal value? (You don't have to answer all of these; I'm just trying to add questions for context to frame the initial/overarching question.)
4. Do you use Hard Mode, and if so, what's worked best for you?
5. Do you find the trade deadline day experience to be realistic and/or exciting? What do you do to build excitement within it for yourself and your roster building process? If you don't use it, why not?
6. What house rules have you implemented for yourself with respect to trade fairness, whether by toggling a setting or abiding by an honor code?
7. Where do you think the game still needs to improve on its trading experience?

I'll answer first in a comment to follow. Looking forward to hearing from others.

1. I have my difficulty slider set three ticks to the right of the middle (toward the hard end) and halfway between favor veterans and prospects.
2. I'm toying around with 70/25/5/0, but I've normally used 65/20/10/5, I believe. Not sure how I feel about the change yet.
3. I think getting one solid prospect for a superstar while rebuilding is fairly achievable, whether by virtue of the MLB player's talent and/or salary situation. Getting a fair package back of several top prospects for a superstar is difficult, especially when the AI usually insists upon that when the situation is in reverse. I often find myself settling for quantity over quality, and I'm curious if others have experienced the same. For salary dumps, I've found it harder in OOTP 25 to get other teams to take players off my hands without sending off a 10-piece deal on my end, even when asking for only a 20/20 scrub in return. Of course, some of that is my insistence on not giving up top prospects in dump deals, but the prospects I often end up deciding to move are not insignificant. I think previous OOTP versions were better about being able to trade just about anyone in your system for a salary dump-type player, and while that sometimes could be exploited — especially around the trade deadline — I never found that the value of the dump in question was particularly high. I would only ever exploit this to get higher fan interest for overpaid, post-prime former stars, but this fan interest "hack" has also been fixed in OOTP 25. I'd like to be able to shed salary with greater ease again, and while I find it realistic that the AI wants prospect value in addition, I find that's only generally something it will give up if I give up a not-insignificant prospect on my end. Deals involving attaching a prospect(s) to a bulky contract for virtual peanuts are hard to come by, and I think sometimes harder than they need to be. You used to be able to add on minor league players to bring down the "Make It Work Now" cost, but the AI now seems to ignore those additions and maintains a consistent list of must-include players and prospects to complete the trade.
4. I don't use Hard Mode. I give a lot of credit to folks who do. I may use it, if I can nail down a more realistic AI trading environment first. It just feels too arbitrary sometimes as to what the AI insists on in a given trade to get it over the hump.
5. I've had a few exciting moments, but I find the AI doesn't get more desperate/lower its asking price throughout the run-up to and the course of the trade deadline day event. It shouldn't get overly so, in my opinion, but I would think asking prices would come down when the clock is ticking and teams are more motivated to deal. I've considered turning it off, as the AI often also makes most of its AI-to-AI trades in the days before the deadline, and I often only see a flurry of emails involving "rumors" surrounding the same half-dozen or so players, with maybe one or two of them actually moved by the end of the deadline periods, if that. I've considered turning it off and am curious to hear if folks who have toggled it off after trying out the deadline feature notice any greater realism with or without it on.
6. I don't circumvent no-trade clauses and don't use the "force trade" button unless the AI previously indicated it would complete said deal and then no longer will after I return to that team (assuming I haven't simmed ahead/circumstances haven't changed). I have draft pick trading on and I also find it more realistic to be able to trade injured players, as long as I don't cheat the AI out of value because someone is hurt. I find that harder to pull off in OOTP 2025, anyway.
7. I think the AI offering prospect packages containing both quality and quantity for stars when shopping a player would be beneficial. I get that AI GMs, like us humans, want to give up as little as possible, but I don't think they always have to start so low as to only offer offensively low minor league filler pieces for a perennial All-Star, especially when they often demand that in return and won't settle for less. Similarly, I think the AI could use to loosen up its hard line on players who are a salary dump and/or are mid-tier and making an appropriate correlating salary. The AI practically asks for your first-born child to retain even the MLB minimum or a few million sometimes, and that feels a bit over the top, to me. I think the general idea is there on how it values different players and prospects in different scenarios, but fine-tuning how the AI operates closer to reality — especially when its AI-to-AI logic often sees far inferior prospects swapped in major trades — when dealing with a human GM would be something I'd like to see. Consistency between human-involved and non- would be welcomed, at the very least. And, apropos of nothing, I'd love to see 3+ team trade compatibility implemented in the future, and/or the ability to list a prospect package or salary relief, etc., among trade needs.

[aks62]

Bumping this, would love to see some discourse.

[Battman]

1) I find that the AI is quite fond of newly drafted prospects. I tried to trade for Mike Schmidt right after he was drafted (one of several I went after but couldn't get). I could not make an offer they would even consider, and I have/offered multiple star players. They wouldn't even talk to me. I have payed hefty prices for some of my players, but couldn't touch these newly drafted players.
2) I set my league up that requires all players making the big leagues has to be 20 years old minimum. However, that also makes them ineligible to trade for. Is there a setting I'm missing?