The MLB trade deadline is fewer than two weeks away, but most fantasy leagues have a later date until which wheeling and dealing can get done, including ESPN which allows trades through Friday, August 18. To help you figure out what trades you should be thinking about making, here are five tips to help facilitate discussion with between you and the rest of your league.
The best trades help both teams
Too many individuals will agree to a deal only if they believe that they will win the trade. The measuring stick they use is usually projected value, but in category-based leagues, value doesn't always manifest in points. What matters is the ability to gain points across as many categories as possible without sacrificing ground in other categories. Thinking about trades in terms of "winning or losing" is a mistake. It's all about improving your team's chances to win, or at least to move up in the standings. The best trades accomplish this goal for all involved, at least from each team manager's individual perspective.
Offering a team manager Pete Alonso when they don't have a need for power and can be hurt in batting average is an inefficient use of time, even if they have the player(s) you need to help your squad. You have a much better chance of getting something done by identifying a team needing power, but in danger of losing minimal points in batting average. This may entail getting back a package less useful than desired, but it's better than getting rejected by the team without a need for Alonso.
Choices, choices, choices
Trades are often about control. Some team managers want you to agree to a deal on their terms, regardless of whether or not what you've originally offered up is a good deal or not. The way to use this to your advantage is to give them a false sense of control by making an offer involving a series of choices. They think they're in control because they're making the ultimate decision with regards to who they deal and who they accept. However, since you took the time to identify all of the involved players, you're going to be satisfied with any combination accepted by your trade partner.
For example, offer up their choice of either Christian Yelich, Adolis Garcia or Luis Robert Jr. -- wow, you drafted a nice outfield -- for either Logan Webb or Kevin Gausman. Let your competitor decide if they prefer steals from Yelich or power from Garcia or Robert and if they're willing to take on Robert's injury risk.
One of the side benefits of this tactic is that you'll often be surprised by the choices that the other team manager makes. Perhaps you see steals as a primary need for your opponent, but they have another deal cooking for stolen bases. Offering just Yelich may result in a rejection -- and not everyone is confident enough to counter with a player more to their liking. If you can also afford to give up power, including Garcia or Robert Jr. in the initial offer absolves them of any need to make an uncomfortable counter.
Similarly, you may prefer Webb over Gausman (or vice versa), but so might your competitor and, if so, they'll reject a deal where no options are given. By not trying to play mind-reader, you might get a surprise acceptance by offering up alternatives from the onset of negotiations.
It's the standings, not the stats
Returning to our first tip, if you're negotiating with someone who needs to "win" the deal, then let them. Trade away players with a greater projected value in exchange for those who help you gain points in the standings. Again, this tip is more apropos for category leagues. The classic example of this type of trade is swapping a higher-rated power hitter for a player who can help with stolen bases. It takes a specific categorical distribution since power hitters also contribute to runs and RBI. However, if you stand to gain more standings places in steals than you lose elsewhere, the deal is beneficial.
Dealing for a currently injured player is always a risk, but no one can move the needle in steals as much as a healthy Esteury Ruiz. On the other hand, the fact that Ruiz is presently on the IL may lower the cost of acquisition. For example, instead of offering our friend Garcia for Ruiz, perhaps Randy Arozarena or (if the positions work) Ozzie Albies will get it done. All three hitters are currently ranked higher than Ruiz on the ESPN Player Rater, so you will "lose" the deal in terms of "value" but because of the gain in standings points, you're really a winner here.
Addition by subtraction
The focus here isn't on your team, but on those adjacent to you in rotisserie standings. There are two ways to gain ground. One is be you moving up in a category, but the other is to see your competitors drop a few places -- and that doesn't have to involve your lineup moving ahead of them.
The perfect scenario is where a team lower in the standings than you sends out a cattle call, soliciting a trade partner. This indicates that said team is paying attention and willing to grind out more points. The perfect scenario is when some of the points they gain are taken from teams close to you in the standings.
Let's say they need saves and you have an excess of closers. If this team can move past the clubs just ahead of you in the standings, offer one of your sources of saves, without too much regard for the return. Clearly, it's best if the player you get in return helps you somewhere, but if your objective is to cost a team or two some points in the saves category while having your team maintain their current placement, it doesn't really matter what you get back in a deal.
Also, while it doesn't relate to this specific scenario, when dealing a closer, don't get hung up on how many saves they currently have. For example, through Tuesday's action, Camilo Doval was leading the majors with 30 saves. Now, there no guarantee he'll accrue the most saves over the rest of the season, so you shouldn't be afraid to trade him away.
That said, his to-date performance is certainly a great selling point and, in this specific type of deal, you want your opponent to ultimately get as many saves as possible, so apply this point in context. Doval is a nice example of someone to offer, since the trading partner must be impressed with the production so far. Even if Doval doesn't continue to lead the league in saves, he still should remain one of the top closers.
Choose a side
This final suggestion is related to those in keeper and dynasty formats. One of the biggest mistakes people make is trying to win this season while also worrying about next season's keepers. Most often, trying to do both results in achieving less than optimal results for this year and next.
A cogent approach when building for the future is to scour opposing rosters for pitchers who are unlikely to help this season but earmarked for several productive years and trade for them today. Nick Lodolo is an example, especially in dynasty leagues where it is necessary to retain pitching, as opposed to keeper leagues where the freeze list focus can be on batters. Walker Buehler and Hunter Greene are other examples of injured hurlers unlikely to help win a title this season.
Another class of pitchers to target are young starters who are either struggling, or those who face workload restrictions down the stretch. This list includes Eury Perez, Bobby Miller, Bryce Miller, Bryan Woo, Tanner Bibee and Gavin Williams.
In keeper leagues, who you can offer is framed by the contracts of current pitchers along with when you logically hope to compete. The same is true in dynasty, but without the contract consideration. Here, it is about how many more years you expect a pitcher to contribute, and if that fits your competitive window. Someone like Zack Wheeler could fetch one of the lesser names from above. He's still pitching well, and can help this season, but he's 33 years old and with a lot of recent mileage on his arm.
To acquire an arm like Lodolo, Buehler or Perez, the competing team is going to require some serious quality. Sure, flags fly forever, but they'll need to be convinced their chances to win are significantly increased to deal an elite keeper. Gerrit Cole is the obvious candidate, even though he's still in his prime at 32 years old. However, to garner a potential ace like Perez, it will take someone of Cole's ilk, especially if the acquiring team has designs on winning for the next couple of seasons. That said, Cole should fetch a package of young players, which includes Perez, or perhaps Buehler, Lodolo or Greene.