How big trades get made:
GM shoots the s*** with other GM
Various player names get thrown around
This goes nowhere so they meet for beers
After a few beers and some dirty jokes a consensus is reached
Names now need to be vetted
GM forwards names to Assistant GM
Assistant GM forwards names to Special Assistant
Special Assistant forwards names to Scouting dept
Scouting dept forwards names to Analytics department
Manager of Analytics dept tosses names to some underpaid kid fresh out of University (just completed his degree in computer science and mathematics)
Analytics kid enters names into some computational analytics programs, makes a few excel spreadsheets
Kid likes the trade and this is sent is back up the ladder
President reads a sentence or two in an email and approves trade in one word resonse "Approved"
Legal department composes some jargon contract using a template they stole from hacking Astro's file servers
Players do a blood test, piss test, jump through a few hoops before medical gives final okay
One year later trade is a complete flop
GM, Special Assistant, Scouting Director, Manager of Analytics Dept are all fired
Analytics Kid is promoted