Even if this is true, and they had an idea of what it would cost keep him around, don’t even bother bringing him over?
Right? What the f*** was the point?
I'm contrasting this to the Gauthier situation.
The issue there, despite the Jones/Hilferty HE DIDNT WAN BE FLYER narrative, seems to be that he wanted to burn a year of ELC early and they were unwilling to do that and the relationship fell apart.
You want to maintain as much long-term contract control as you can with the young studs, and I totally get that, but you gotta pick your battles. No, he wouldn't have "earned" it, and yes it would have cost them more money to retain the player, because inevitably you end up paying on a big extension a year earlier than you'd want to. A complicating factor there is that the previous GM may have promised that option to the player and then the new one, in his first act as GM, may have reneged that promise.
But the idea that they looked at that situation and said "f*** you, no" and then turned around and promise low-end starter money to a guy who was 30th in save percentage in a 23-team B league, and then feel beholden to that promise...
I don't think Briere knows what he's doing.