Klentak only wanted Arrieta on a 3 year deal (Hextall faces the same issue, resigning your good young players down the road).
Arrieta is a question mark, velocity has fallen off, but he had a strong second half even with his lower velocity.
Which means he'll probably be good at age 32 in 2018, but probably not at age 35 in 2021.
So Klentak is only on the hook for three years, during which the payroll should be well below the salary cap.
Nola, Arrieta and a bunch of talented question marks.
This just increases the odds, they have six young SP for three slots (and Leiter is a lock for #6/LR):
Pivetta, Velasquez, Eflin, Eickhoff, Lively and Thompson.
The lineup is solid, and Kingery should be up in a couple months, which means a Hernandez trade is likely at some point.
Franco will get one last shot at 3B, and they'll live with Alfaro's growing pains at C.