3) I don't have super super up-to-date #s, but the generally expected/accepted $/fWAR going rate in free agency is at least $10.5m per win as of 2017. So $10.4m for a 2-3 fWAR guy with whole-OF flexibility over his 27 to 32/33 age seasons is a totally reasonable price.
I've been saying it for 3 years, but people need to stop using this metric to justify new contract signings. It didn't make sense in 2017 and it makes less sense in 2019.
If you're signing 1 fwar players to $10 mil/year, 2 fwar players to $20 mil/year and 3 fwar players to $30 mil/year, you're not going to last long as a GM.
That $10 mil/1fwar figure, if accurate, is there simply to serve as a warning against signing older free agents to big deals. It's not meant to serve as an acceptable baseline for your own player signings.
Having said that, I see Grichuk as a 3 fwar+ player for us in the future, so this signing is a solid gamble. Whatever budget savings we have this year or next (or the year after) won't carry over into the following years, so it's best we sign as many of these front-loaded deals as we can during years where our payroll won't be near budget, and save money on the back-end years where hopefully we're contending and signing free agents (starting probably around 2022).