Do Rebuilds Ever Work?

md40022 · 05-21-2026, 09:51 AM

This is a legitimate question much more so than it is a complaint. As someone who plays every game, I don't get as deep into my saves as a lot of you do - so I'm figuring you guys have more input on this than I do.

On computer managed teams, are teams that officially go into rebuild mode ever successful in doing so? And if they are successful, is it ever a success to the point that it leads to year after year of winning? Or are they more or less one-year wonders from time to time.

I ask this because in my experience the computer managed teams that are in official rebuilding mode pretty much stay bad for the length of my sim. They make weird trades that don't line up with what a rebuild should be. Example being, they'll take on long term contracts of past their prime veterans as opposed to trading the veterans off to stockpile the farm system. Their offseasons tend to be weird, again with no rhyme or reason to so many roster moves...... and they pretty much stay bad for the entirety of my sim.

In a perfect world there would be a little more logic to the way a rebuilding team operates, but again I'm not trying to complain with this post. I'm willing to chalk this up as teams that are always rebuilding normally have poor ownership and/or a bad front office and and THAT is what I can attribute their questionable moves to haha.... But just for my own knowledge, have any of you that really get deep into your sims ever seen a team that is in an official rebuild (they declare it in trade screen) truly turn it around and become a year in and year out powerhouse? Again, I only ask to satisfy my own curiosity. Because in my experience if a team declares rebuild, that's going to be an awful team for the length of my sim.

Baconi · 05-21-2026, 11:26 AM

The new trade AI is supposed to help with this as teams tend to make trades that make more "sense" for their situation. But even with that I agree, CPU teams are not good at doing a full rebuild and ending up successful. To help, you might manually put bad teams into rebuilding mode if they have no real chance of making the playoffs but are still stuck in "neutral" - I find that the AI is not aggressive enough in declaring their mode. You could also adjust trade settings to favor veterans a bit more than prospects so rebuilding teams get better packages for their stars.

Part of what makes it difficult to have an effective AI for a small market team is that there isn't a great way to set up a multi-year "plan" like real life organizations do. In the game, the AI just takes it year by year without any roadmap or larger plan, and then maybe they end up getting lucky. I hope there can be more improvements for effective AI rebuilds because it does get a bit boring when some teams are just perpetually bad.

ChrisG · 05-21-2026, 04:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Baconi

The new trade AI is supposed to help with this as teams tend to make trades that make more "sense" for their situation. But even with that I agree, CPU teams are not good at doing a full rebuild and ending up successful. To help, you might manually put bad teams into rebuilding mode if they have no real chance of making the playoffs but are still stuck in "neutral" - I find that the AI is not aggressive enough in declaring their mode. You could also adjust trade settings to favor veterans a bit more than prospects so rebuilding teams get better packages for their stars.

Part of what makes it difficult to have an effective AI for a small market team is that there isn't a great way to set up a multi-year "plan" like real life organizations do. In the game, the AI just takes it year by year without any roadmap or larger plan, and then maybe they end up getting lucky. I hope there can be more improvements for effective AI rebuilds because it does get a bit boring when some teams are just perpetually bad.

Luckily I would think that since the new trading system is such a great starting point that this is something the devs could probably focus on tweaking.

Sweed · 05-21-2026, 05:45 PM

I only get in two or three seasons per version playing out all of my games. I couldn't say one way of the other how rebuilding teams have done. I think most teams cycle between being good and bad.

I've just entered my first July in v27. What I have seen in the limited trades so far is a reason to hope that the improved trade module could mean AI teams will do better at improving their lot. I'm under no illusion that teams will have a "three year plan", but if the new trading means they are able to get decent/good young players that are under control for a few years? They just might be successful by attrition.

malor · 05-21-2026, 08:16 PM

Teams without money almost always fail. They just can't keep up with the spending from other teams.

Pelican · 05-21-2026, 08:24 PM

What I have seen is that AI rebuilding teams are good at the first part: scrapping overpaid veterans in favor of investing in prospects. It takes time to rebuild. What the AI can miss is when the team is improving, and needs to think about plugging the remaining gaps with free agents. In the offseason I will sometimes change a team's designation. You can't keep rebuilding forever.

True that without money it is hard to get too far. With the current economics of the game, it's virtually impossible to hold onto young studs long enough for the team to coalesce. They reach arbitration and free agency and are gone. The new spree of signing minor league guys to long-term contracts might prolong the rebuilding phase, but you still need money.

BaseballATeam · 05-28-2026, 02:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Baconi

The new trade AI is supposed to help with this as teams tend to make trades that make more "sense" for their situation. But even with that I agree, CPU teams are not good at doing a full rebuild and ending up successful. To help, you might manually put bad teams into rebuilding mode if they have no real chance of making the playoffs but are still stuck in "neutral" - I find that the AI is not aggressive enough in declaring their mode. You could also adjust trade settings to favor veterans a bit more than prospects so rebuilding teams get better packages for their stars.

Part of what makes it difficult to have an effective AI for a small market team is that there isn't a great way to set up a multi-year "plan" like real life organizations do. In the game, the AI just takes it year by year without any roadmap or larger plan, and then maybe they end up getting lucky. I hope there can be more improvements for effective AI rebuilds because it does get a bit boring when some teams are just perpetually bad.

It's not even year-to-year. They just treat each decision point as a binary based on current conditions. OOTP AI is incapable of planning.

For this reason, I cannot create conditions where I am not competitive. I won a 2026 WS with the Rox--with challenging settings, like three completely sane trades, and (of course) a bunch of waiver moves.

It does seem like the next step in OOTP's evolution is using a ChatGPT AI to rewrite the code for the game AI logic to involve multi-step planning.

Alternatively, they could finally support human leagues. That would be just swell. The current implementation of multi-player is just a disaster. All support is provided by third parties, and the files are extremely prone to corruption.

05-21-2026, 09:51 AM	#1
md40022 All Star Reserve Join Date: Mar 2018 Posts: 768 Infractions: 0/1 (1)	Do Rebuilds Ever Work? This is a legitimate question much more so than it is a complaint. As someone who plays every game, I don't get as deep into my saves as a lot of you do - so I'm figuring you guys have more input on this than I do. On computer managed teams, are teams that officially go into rebuild mode ever successful in doing so? And if they are successful, is it ever a success to the point that it leads to year after year of winning? Or are they more or less one-year wonders from time to time. I ask this because in my experience the computer managed teams that are in official rebuilding mode pretty much stay bad for the length of my sim. They make weird trades that don't line up with what a rebuild should be. Example being, they'll take on long term contracts of past their prime veterans as opposed to trading the veterans off to stockpile the farm system. Their offseasons tend to be weird, again with no rhyme or reason to so many roster moves...... and they pretty much stay bad for the entirety of my sim. In a perfect world there would be a little more logic to the way a rebuilding team operates, but again I'm not trying to complain with this post. I'm willing to chalk this up as teams that are always rebuilding normally have poor ownership and/or a bad front office and and THAT is what I can attribute their questionable moves to haha.... But just for my own knowledge, have any of you that really get deep into your sims ever seen a team that is in an official rebuild (they declare it in trade screen) truly turn it around and become a year in and year out powerhouse? Again, I only ask to satisfy my own curiosity. Because in my experience if a team declares rebuild, that's going to be an awful team for the length of my sim.

05-21-2026, 08:24 PM	#6
Pelican Hall Of Famer Join Date: Mar 2021 Location: Wilmington, Delaware Posts: 3,262	What I have seen is that AI rebuilding teams are good at the first part: scrapping overpaid veterans in favor of investing in prospects. It takes time to rebuild. What the AI can miss is when the team is improving, and needs to think about plugging the remaining gaps with free agents. In the offseason I will sometimes change a team's designation. You can't keep rebuilding forever. True that without money it is hard to get too far. With the current economics of the game, it's virtually impossible to hold onto young studs long enough for the team to coalesce. They reach arbitration and free agency and are gone. The new spree of signing minor league guys to long-term contracts might prolong the rebuilding phase, but you still need money. __________________ Pelican OOTP 2020-? ”Hard to believe, Harry.”

05-21-2026, 11:26 AM	#2
Baconi Minors (Triple A) Join Date: Oct 2017 Location: Pittsburgh, PA Posts: 262	The new trade AI is supposed to help with this as teams tend to make trades that make more "sense" for their situation. But even with that I agree, CPU teams are not good at doing a full rebuild and ending up successful. To help, you might manually put bad teams into rebuilding mode if they have no real chance of making the playoffs but are still stuck in "neutral" - I find that the AI is not aggressive enough in declaring their mode. You could also adjust trade settings to favor veterans a bit more than prospects so rebuilding teams get better packages for their stars. Part of what makes it difficult to have an effective AI for a small market team is that there isn't a great way to set up a multi-year "plan" like real life organizations do. In the game, the AI just takes it year by year without any roadmap or larger plan, and then maybe they end up getting lucky. I hope there can be more improvements for effective AI rebuilds because it does get a bit boring when some teams are just perpetually bad.

05-21-2026, 08:16 PM	#5
malor Major Leagues Join Date: May 2015 Posts: 492	Teams without money almost always fail. They just can't keep up with the spending from other teams.