How to tell what a league-mate will accept in a trade
A trade calculator prices the players. Whether the trade gets accepted depends on the owner, and most of what you need to know about them is already in your league’s history on Sleeper.
These are the seven things worth checking before you send an offer, in the order they pay off, with what years of real leagues say about each. You can check all of them by hand. Dynasty Seer reads them for every owner in your league.
The short answer
Look at the owner, not the player. Check who they have traded with before, whether they send offers or wait for them, how quickly they answer, which way their team is heading, where their lineup is thin, and when in the year they deal. Ignore whether they just lost: owners trade just as often after a win.
Seven things an owner’s history tells you
The numbers on this page come from Dynasty Seer’s own tests on 13 public Sleeper dynasty leagues, up to 145 owners and seven seasons, each claim checked against what chance alone would produce. Treat them as good bets, not laws: your league has its own habits.
Who they have already traded with
Trade partners repeat. Two owners who had traded together twice or more went on to trade together about one and a half times as often as their activity alone would predict. If that owner is you, you start ahead. If they keep dealing with someone else, that is the deal shape they like.
- By hand on Sleeper
- Scroll the league’s trades on Sleeper, season by season, and count each owner’s partners.
- In Dynasty Seer
- Each owner’s report names the owner they trade with most, and the Pitch board adds points for an owner you have traded with twice or more in the last two years.
Whether they send offers or wait for them
Some owners propose their own trades and some only answer. It is one of the habits that held from owners’ earlier seasons to their later ones. An owner who waits needs you to make the first move. An owner who proposes their own has usually decided what they want, so ask before you offer.
- By hand on Sleeper
- Sleeper shows who created each trade in its details. Tally a season of them for the owner you have in mind.
- In Dynasty Seer
- The scouting report says whether they start trades or wait for offers, and “At the table” leads with one line: send the first offer, let them open, or follow up.
How fast they answer, and how much they give up
How long an offer usually waits for an owner’s yes tells you when silence is still an open question and when it is a no. And most owners settle inside a range: the gap between what they gave and what they got, across their past deals, tells you how much room there is before an offer is dead on arrival.
- By hand on Sleeper
- Compare each trade’s created and completed times, then price both sides in a calculator for a handful of their trades.
- In Dynasty Seer
- “At the table” shows how long an offer waits for their yes, the gap they usually settle for and the most they have ever given up.
Which way their team is heading
Contenders buy from sellers. From week 4 on, a third of in-season trades paired a top-third team with a bottom-third one, against a quarter if owners picked partners at random. An offer that asks a contender for a starter, or offers a rebuilder a 29-year-old, is fighting the owner’s whole season.
- By hand on Sleeper
- Standings and playoff odds give you the direction. Then read the roster: an old starting lineup on a losing team is a seller.
- In Dynasty Seer
- The Trade Block labels every team Win now, In between or Rebuilding, and each owner’s card carries the same label.
Where their lineup is thin
Need is the plainest reason anyone says yes. An owner in the bottom three of the league in points at a position, with no depth behind it, is paying attention to offers there. Injuries and bye weeks make the same need urgent.
- By hand on Sleeper
- Compare starters’ points by position across the league, then check their bench and this week’s injuries and byes.
- In Dynasty Seer
- Each report names the position they need right now, and the Pitch board scores this week’s injuries, byes and the positions where they are thin and you are deep.
When they deal
Leagues have a calendar and owners have a rhythm. An owner who just made a trade is nearly twice as likely to make another within the week (21% against 12%). Some owners only deal in the offseason, or during the rookie draft. An offer sent in their dead months waits for nothing.
- By hand on Sleeper
- Note the month of each of their trades over the last two or three seasons.
- In Dynasty Seer
- Each owner’s card gives their chance of a trade in the next 30 days, from their own pace and your league’s calendar, and “When they’re on Sleeper” charts the days and hours they are active.
What they have paid for lately
Owners lean: some pay over market for picks, some for young players, some for one position. But read their last six months, not their career. Owners who bought youth in earlier seasons tended to buy veterans later, and whether they buy or sell picks didn’t hold from year to year.
- By hand on Sleeper
- Price their recent trades in a calculator and see which side of each they overpaid.
- In Dynasty Seer
- “How they price players” fits a model to the owner’s own trades and says each lean in words, with a range, and the Trade Calculator’s “In their eyes” line prices your deal the way that owner has priced players.
Three things that don’t tell you much
The same tests looked for these and found nothing to act on.
Waiting for them to lose
Owners traded just as often after a loss as after a win (13% either way), even owners who had dealt after losses before. Don’t hold an offer for a bad week.
Who “wins” their trades
How much value an owner’s trades won in earlier seasons said nothing about their later ones. An owner who lost their last three deals is not an easy mark.
A one-word label
An owner’s style rarely survived from one set of seasons to the next. “He always rebuilds” is usually two years out of date.
Before you send the offer
- 1Pick the owner before the player: someone whose window is the opposite of yours and whose lineup is thin where you are deep.
- 2Check their last few trades for the shape they like: two-for-one, picks for players, who they dealt with.
- 3Decide who opens. If they wait for offers, send one. If they propose their own, ask what they would want.
- 4Price the offer inside the gap they usually settle for, and lead with the player who fills their need.
- 5Send it when they are active, and follow up once. An owner who takes days to answer hasn’t said no.
See it for your own league
Type your Sleeper username and pick a league. You get a scouting report on every owner in it: one headline habit each and the first move to make.
Only your Sleeper username: never your password, and no account needed. A league link or id works too.
What an owner report covers · The research behind these numbers
Questions
How do I know if my trade offer will be accepted?
You can’t know, but you can raise the odds. Offers get accepted when they fit the owner: their window, a position where they are thin, a deal shape they have taken before, and a price inside the gap they usually settle for. All four are in your league’s trade history.
Is there a tool that shows what my league-mate will accept?
Dynasty Seer builds a scouting report on every owner in a Sleeper league from the league’s own history: who they trade with, whether they open or wait, how fast they answer, how they price players and how likely they are to trade in the next 30 days. It gives odds and reads, not a promise.
Does a fair trade by the calculator get accepted?
Often not. A calculator prices players for the market. An owner prices them for their own team: a contender discounts picks, a rebuilder discounts veterans, and many owners simply prefer certain positions. A deal that is even on values can still be one-sided in their eyes.
When is the best time to send a trade offer in dynasty?
When that owner is already dealing. An owner who made a trade in the last week is nearly twice as likely to make another. Beyond that every league has its own calendar; in the leagues we studied first, October, November and August were the busy months and December to April nearly dead.
Should I send a lowball offer first?
Only to an owner whose history shows they counter. Check how the trades they accepted compare with fair value: if they have never given up much, an offer far outside that gap usually ends the conversation.
Can I check all of this without a tool?
Yes. Everything on this page is in your league’s transactions on Sleeper. It takes an evening per owner. Dynasty Seer reads it for every owner in seconds, and you can run a free report on any Sleeper league without an account.
Know every owner before you make an offer
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Values by Dynasty Dealer · League data from Sleeper · Not affiliated with Sleeper