I am managing a fictional historical team playing in 1901, and I received a surprisingly good trade offer. But it's a classic question of getting an older veteran to help win a championship or keeping my team's top prospect.
My team is now in first place by 3.5 games, and it's probably going to be a battle to stay in front and win the pennant. In this league, there is no World Series. It's all-or-nothing in the regular season.
We already have a strong four-man rotation, particularly in the top three spots. But a team is offering me one of the top pitchers in the league, who is 33 years old and has been leading or near the top in a number of pitching categories.
He seems to be outperforming his ratings, so I'm not sure that he'll continue to perform at the same level. But all I've been asked to trade away is a 37 year-old catcher who is on my reserve list, plus my top prospect. My prospect could be headed for a future as an outstanding second basemen, and he's been the subject of numerous trade offers from other teams. But he still needs time to develop.
It's a tough decision. I would be giving up my only outstanding young prospect to get the luxury of having another excellent starting pitcher, but one who is 33 years old. It would be great insurance against an injury to one of my top three starters, and it might secure the pennant for us. Then again, it might not. Plus I already have quite a few players on my team who are in their 30s and are probably due to start declining at some point.
I have a very good player at second base right now, but he could start aging in the next couple of years. And my prospect has the potential to be better offensively than my current second baseman. But the youngster would need a good amount of defensive improvement to be as good with the glove.
What would you do in this situation? Trade away a bit of the future to create a dominant 4-man rotation, hopefully pull away to win the championship, and use free agency in the future to compensate for losing your top prospect? Or keep the top prospect because you may not really need another great starter, you don't have any other excellent prospects, and you won't have high draft positions?
NOTE: Ratings are on a 10-point scale in my game. Scouting accuracy is 100%
Veteran SP to Be Received
Prospect to be Traded Away
