Playing to exchange and reach an endgame with no thought or calculation

During Highschool, i had a peer that played against me, and i alway felt he was a stronger player than me, but at the time we wouldve been around 1400-1500, and the reason for me thinking this, is because when i played him:

1. He never looked at the board and played on his phone (this psyched me out alot) 
2. He never spent time calculating, he'd simply develop his peices naturally with no thought, and always play his bishops to g4, g5, b4, b5 as to put my knights in a pin, so he didnt have to calculate
3. once his peices where in a position to trade, he simply just traded everything down untill it was a Queen and rooke(s) and pawn endgame. and usually from all the captures and pins, id have a ruined pawn structure and he went on to win nearly everygame.

So this went on for a while, and i thought to myself "surely this cant be good, there needs to a refutation, and a way to punish this natural (and frankly unskillful) development of peices."

So just for example, this would be the jist of a game with him

and personally, i feel black has better chances than white here (and this isnt a good example of how we used to play), but as a lower rated player, i would get caught having to deal with him trading off every piece from this point onwards, going on a pawn hunt, and eventually my damaged structure lost me the game.

So. Chess.com community,
any suggestions on how to refute the mindless trading?
Perhaps specific openings that beginners can use to get out of this cycle?

P.S. Reason im bringing this up, is because i recently played against an opponent that did this to ME, and i went on to win quite easily, but i remembered the struggle i used to face against this, and couldnt find a specific forum for it, so hopefully decided to get the ball rolling 

Learn the opening better, which in this case is the Four Knights Game, Spanish Variation. I believe 4...a6 is considered inferior, and I believe it transposes into an inferior version of the Ruy Lopez. Better is the Double Ruy Lopez 4...Bb4, or some version of the Three Knights Game like the Rubinstein Countergambit 4...Nd4.

I believe the position is very close to even in the last position you posted, though Black's bishop is probably better at e7. White's main attacking trick in most of these openings, I believe, is getting a bishop at g5 with a knight at d5, which usually forces a doubling of Black's f-pawns. However, in the position you posted White has gotten rid of that attacking bishop, and White cannot jump Nd5 due to Black's defending c-pawn. I don't have any specific advice for Black for avoiding a draw or weak endgame, since that's where Black steered the game with ...e5 and ...Nc6. Now you know one reason why the Sicilian (and Pirc, and French, and Caro-Kann, etc.) are so popular!

In this position you have better chances. Put your bishop on g4 and it's hard for white to get out of the pin without ruining his pawn structure by h3,g4 or losing a pawn. Then move your queen out of the way of the f-pawn by Qg6 then push f5. After opening the file for the rook, play Qh5 and you win a pawn by force or threaten checkmate by Rxf3 and after gxf3 Bxf3 and then after white moves their queen, play Qg4 mate

If white moves h3 and g4 there can be more than one mating idea. White's knights have no good squares and black can start a pawn storm starting with h6 Bh7 g6 f5 and after everything is exchanged on f5 black has two extra pieces on the king side, the light squared bishop and the rook. White cannot survive. The king can go to h8 and white cannot easily attack it because he doesn't have a dark squared bishop whereas black can defend because he/she does have a dark squared bishop.

What do you mean "going on a pawn hunt", in all the years I spent reading about/playing chess I don't understand this phrase. I've heard of a king hunt, which is a common expression, never a "pawn hunt".

Perhaps his trading wasn't so "mindless" after all, if he ends up in the better position and you have no idea why?  

You have the bishop pair here, trying to keep pieces such as the bishop pair is an inherent part of the game. Anyone would want to exchange a knight for a bishop in this position, first day of chess school. 

Instead of 6.d3 (harmless) white can get an advantage with 6.Nxe5 Nxe4 7.Nxe4 Qd4 8.0-0. Several good games played from that point.

I would play another 4th move.

I think you can do with out the move 4...a6

Mindless trading should refute itself... Trading with clear purpose is hard to refute in my experience.

Sorry i havent gotten back to this thread in quite some time. thankyou all for your insight on the matter, and id like to clarify that ive now improved my game quite some amount, and that learning different openings and positions has been a major focus on my practice!

 Uhohspaghettio1 what i refer to with a pawn hunt is simply winning pawns/freepeices without consideration of a goal, or a strategy regarding the position, for example, if i saw a free pawn in a game, id think to myself "does taking it allow my current plan to press forward? or is it free material that literally just achieves a piece imbalance in the game"

Thanks again for your replies, and i just thought about making this thread for people that stuggled with this problem, just like i did!