OPL Trades from Both Sides

The Ottoneu Prestige League (OPL) is nearing the end of the second round, which means teams above (or near!) the Red Line of Doom are both tracking these final moments to see if they are going to make the top 100 and prepping their teams to make a run at the top 32 and the knockout rounds. That means those teams are looking at who is contributing and who isn’t and are making tough decisions about long-term pieces vs. a short-term boost. That creates some interesting trade dynamics, even for teams who are NOT in OPL.

Just moments ago, I made a trade in league 1199, a 4×4 league in which I am in 11th place, but was holding out hope that my team could still make a little run. I counted 20 points my team could get in the standings purely from a good couple of weeks and some internal improvement. Add in a couple of trades, and I could see a path all the way back to 4th place.

Any higher, though, was going to take some significant luck and this league has prizes for the top three. Aggressively trading away keepers to get into that top three is worth it. Aggressively trading away keepers to land outside the top three would be bad.

How does OPL factor into this? Enter second-place KitCatz, who have entered OPL and decide that this is the moment to trade two very intriguing prospects (Marcelo Mayer and Andrew Painter) and a young, inexpensive pitcher set to miss some time due to injury. He reminded other managers that he is in OPL, that the deadline is coming, and that he wanted to move these three.

And then he offered me this deal:

As far as blind offers go, it’s not a bad one. That Soto is not a keeper. Painter and Mayer are really intriguing. The interpretation of the trade really pivots on Miller and Ryan, at least for me. If you think Miller broke out last year and is dealing with this bone spur issue and will be back to normal next year, maybe after a clean-up surgery, he’s a great get. If you think he over-performed last year and now has a bum elbow, he’s pretty worthless. If you think Ryan is reaching a new level this year, he’s still a great value at $19. If you think he’s going to revert back to closer to his career norms, he is a good value but will be a borderline keeper..

The other manager will tell you that, if not for OPL, he would never do this deal. He’s probably the high man on Painter and has been singing his praises for months, or maybe years. He’s also a Phillies fan. Are those things related? I’ll let you decide. He’s also more in the first camp on Miller. But he only has about 24 hours to get non-productive players off his roster and replace them with productive guys so he made a trade offer that he “wouldn’t think twice” about turning down if it weren’t for OPL. That impending deadline and the difficulty of cracking the top-32 pushed him to push hard.

I, on the other hand, am a bit more neutral on Painter (I do think he is one of the top SP prospects in the game, but not as high as the other manager) and Miller (I see both sides, I think he is a bit of a wait-and-see). And I am a big Joe Ryan fan. Does that mean I won’t ever move Joe Ryan? No, I could see moving him. But I am not anxious to do so and I don’t see him as a guy who can’t be kept for 2026.

Knowing he wanted Soto but also a viable arm to put up some OPL points, I told him that the SP I would move are Ryan Gusto, Luis L. Ortiz, or Chris Paddack. Gusto is, to be honest, probably a cut. Ortiz is the one I like best. He asked about Paddack – I swap Ryan for Paddack and he keeps Painter. I don’t think this is an unfair counter, but in this particular case, I had a bit of a negotiating edge: the OPL round coming to an end.

See, I am in no hurry here. I could trade Soto to a contender at any time! The other manager, however, is watching the hours tick away and needs to make a move. So I just said…no. I offered to swap in Paddack for Ryan, but I still wanted all three players back. I did throw him a couple of extra dollars in cap space (he was up against the cap, and I was not) but that was it. And I told him “I am not going to negotiate a ton beyond” that offer.

And that was that. He accepted, deal done.

It’s a win-win, I think. I am not sure I could have gotten two young prospects I like as much as Painter and Mayer for Soto at another time, and Paddack for Miller is a perfectly fine upside bet for me. And the other manager is now much better for round three of OPL, where Miller and Painter wouldn’t help him at all, while Mayer is still getting his feet under him. He added an arm he needed and an elite bat.

As we get deeper into trade season, now is a good moment, even if you are not in OPL, to check your league standings for this symbol:

If you see that logo, that team is in OPL. You can then go to the OPL standings to see if that team is likely building for round three. And if so, now is a good moment to offer them something immediately productive for any injured players or prospects on your roster that you happen to like. They have limited time and strong motivation to act. You can’t just offer them a totally lopsided deal, but you might be able to get a better deal today than you would next week without the OPL deadline creating urgency.