You would have to pay almost all of Morales's contract to dump him and free up the roster spot. So it's not like it actually clears salary to pay someone else.
Unfortunately so, yes. Makes that whole thing just worse when you think about it. Even with maintaining Morales as a sunk cost, the Bautista aav remains available to reallocate (with e caveat of course of arb salary increases).
Perhaps a crap (Morales) for crap (Gerardo Parra) would add some positional flexibility.
Sorry would rather have Gordon and Cain for about 27 combined and trade off Morales. Then sign one player for 25 million per season. Gordon gives us insurance in outfield and infield. Maybe even start everyday at 2B and move Travis to DH and utility player that the Jays want.
Imagine Gordon and Cain starting you batting lineup followed by JD, Smoak, Tulo and others. Better balanced lineup then Martinez in it alone.
See, this is where Zeke and I cross over, in theory. Knowing what I do about my future roster, I’m more inclined to go heavy on a core of players (i.e. Donaldson re-signed through age 36, Martinez signed through age 36) and gain my speed, defense and athletism through the young players in my pipeline. So instead of betting on 30+ athletic tool based players will remain athletic, I’m betting on Teoscar, Alford, DSJ, Gurriel to hit their potential.
The strategy becomes further viable when I consider I have to pre-arb potential superstars in the pipe (Vlad/Bo) who would not be expensive until Donaldson was ready to roll off my books (4 years).
I’m not usually willing to go long with free agents, but if I was ever able to invest heavily, it would with a 30 year old who essentially matched the messiah (Judge) as a hitter in 2017.