Salary Dumps

[blessyouboys2021]

Hi Y'all,

Long time OOTP player. Recently purchased 24. I had heard the trade AI engine was improved, but I have to say there is still a lot of issues.

I think the biggest thing I've noticed is teams get so into the red, they will dump any player with a salary for just about anything. I completed the 2023 season and in the offseason shopped one of my starters, Spencer Turnbull, on an expiring contract.

One of the players offered to be was Alex Bregman, coming off a 4.0 WAR season, also in the last year of his contract. When I clicked on the trade, I could see that Houston was $40M in the whole and needed to trade Bregman just to dump the salary.

Is there anything that can be done to avoid these type of offers. I considered manually going into Houston's finances in commissioner mode and upping their budget, so they didn't trade a superstar for nothing to anyone else.

Is there any way to prevent this? I have trades at most difficult. I understand the financial management is part of the fun of the game, but these trades are so easy to pull off, it's not really fun.

[Sweed]

The AI will always have issues with trading, it is what it is.


My experience in my league is the AI does not trade these players to other AI teams, they don't want the contract either. All one needs to do is decide how one wants to proceed, as the human player, if this player is offered.

Some users will say the game shouldn't "save them from themselves" and if the game offers it, it's fair to take it. Others won't take it because it smells of cheese. I'm in the later group as it won't give me any enjoyment in my solo league.

The Shop Player feature is something that can be "gamed" by the human or not. Some argue it should be removed from OOTP. I do not agree with this as it is also a tool of convenience for players that don't want to spend hours trying to set up a trade. I'll use it on occasion when trying to move minor leaguers when I find myself stacked at a position, or a player with minor league free agency on the horizon and I haven't a spot for him to move up. If I get an unrealistic offer from the AI I ignore it.


Here is something I posted in another thread that, I think, adds some context to my first paragraph and the AI not trading for, or wanting, these big contracts.

Originally Posted by Sweed

I'm not saying OOTP puts a guy on waivers knowing his contract wouldn't be picked up. I'm saying a guy, even though a star or even very good, may not be picked up because of his contract. OOTP is good at signing players to large realistic contracts, but as soon as it does, it tends to look at them as a negative in terms of a team's budget.

Which kind of ends up being a catch 22 (in a good way). Team gets it's star player at a realistic price and though it now thinks he should maybe be traded, he can't be because he has his star contract.