Default settings for difficulty:
Difficulty = 14 points towards hard
Favors Prospects = 5 points towards favors prospects
Slightly adjusted for Player Evaluation:
Ratings weight = 50
Current Year Stats = 35
Previous Year Stats = 10
2 years ago stats = 5
The trade offer that I originally mentioned happened 1 or 2 weeks into the first season.
About a month deeper into the season I received another trade offer. I do not remember the details, but it was even worse than the first one. The AI again offered like a 4A caliber player, for both a higher rated veteran in the starting lineup and a prospect that was already rated higher than the offered player while also carrying a much higher potential. I'm hoping this gets better as the season progresses and scouting for all teams becomes more filled out. I know my scouting director was vacant at the launch of play and it takes some time to go from "low" on the scout to being more accurate.
Hoping you're right that things are better this year. I have hundreds of hours in every OOTP game going back the last few years, and I would be shocked if there were 10 AI trade offers that made me even stop and pause to consider or use it as a starting point. Which I have always found funny because the AI is usually really good at understanding when you're trying to fleece them, and they even regularly reject fair and slight overpays as laughable.