I don’t necessarily disagree with you; certainly I think Stewart is useless, but putting a more positive light on things, Stewart has a good eye, Mullins offers great D, Power isn’t everything, assuming Hays won’t stay healthy is only an assumption, and Diaz hasn’t even taken the field as a major leaguer.
If healthy, Hays is a fine CF, Mullins remains a fine 4 OF, Stewart shouldn’t be in the OF anyway, and Diaz will get every chance to show his stuff.
I thought he was better his first two years then started to rely on catch phrases and homer-isms the longer his tenure went, but I'll admit to not watching many of his broadcasts the last 3 years.
So they weren't penny pinching enough to be penny pinching at all?
They did leave more unspent than any other team. More than other famously frugal teams like the Marlins, Rays, Indians and Pirates.
Sorry, when I see them cutting everything else, saving amounts that should be irrelevant, I can't trust them. I think it's pretty clear that they consider 222K an amount they deem at least somewhat significant.
It's possible, but the evidence isn't there. My theory espoused above seems more likely, in my opinion, than the idea that ownership declared that they could spend $13.67 million of their $13.89 million pool, but not a penny more. $222K is 1.6 percent of the pool, essentially a rounding error. If their hands were tied, it would have been a more substantial sum of money being saved.