and then say you cant afford to fix significant holes in the offense.

they should be positioning this in such a way that the contract demands of someone like Beltran do not outweigh the risks of age + injury history, which is a totally legitimate reason to stay way imo.

i think it bad given the unprecedented fan support of the previous year (+ more price increases) that they are letting sabean be the dour mouthpiece for the offseason and effectively killing some of the optimism of the fanbase. we don't need to give someone a huge contract now, but we do need to believe that they are willing to invest if/when the commitment is justifiable.

my biggest concern going forward is that we have lost the source of strong independent thought that Neukom provided and the front office turns into more of an echo chamber for Sabean. i'm much less confident in Baer asking the right questions and challenging baseball decisions when warranted.