Originally Posted by
jloome
He did not.
He has complete roster control in that he can sit or get rid of whomever he likes. But that doesn't guarantee he's going to get money to do it. They're not going to give any manager carte blanche again.
So if something is expensive they still have to make a call based on keeping within their spending guidelines.
That's probably why it hasn't happened already. MLSE doesn't care about $12M amortized over several years, it's a rounding error to them. But the obvious way to keep the front office on the ball is to limit their means somewhat.
So he's much more likely to be going out on a season-long loan to buy. I'm told, although this source has been wrong before, that they are trying to get a "must buy" clause in there based on number of appearances, so they can recoup some money.
But if they don't get that they'll still loan him out to get rid of him, because he's just poisonous. If they can't loan him, I can honestly see them sitting him and "allowing him to train on his own," which is the nice way of saying just shutting him out and paying him for nothing.