Add new comment

In Seattle, they allot money for ARod, he doesn't sign, and then the dinero goes back into the coffers.  Kazuhiro Sasaki goes back to Japan, giving us an $8M rebate, and that goes anywhere and everywhere other than payroll.  We make a big push for Prince Fielder and he says nada, and his $20M is nowhere to be found on opening day.
The payroll, to the Seattle ownership committee, expands or contracts depending on whether they can land the targets they've tunnel-visioned in onto.  That payroll level is 100% discretionary, not just in theory but in practice, and if they don't find just the right options then it turns out we didn't have the money.
There are positives to that attitude, but it's not the one that fans in other big cities are accustomed to.  At SSI, most folks don't want to positively reinforce the ownership committee in its public line that no money was available.  The reality that they chose not to spend, in a given situation, is retroactively spun as inability to spend.
If Fielder had taken $160M last winter, they'd have given it to him.  If another guy had come in after that, let's say Suppan at a 30% discount, then they'd have done that too.  Same situation may occur with Hamilton this year.