I guess we're just in a bit of a weird place right now regarding market value of vets making a bit of money, and I'm still having a hard time making sense of it. In the past, Pillar would have been moved for an actual prospect or two and the whole thing would be less blatantly about not wanting to pay 6M for a couple of wins. Now, a 30-year old 2-win player making 6M doesn't really have any value around the league, and teams are just punting those guys for payroll savings.
I wonder if this is the new norm or just a temporary blip. We've seen a bunch of playoff teams get big contributions from FAs that signed for surprisingly cheap in the offseason, and guys who were given away for next to nothing because of their salaries (Pillar, Roark for example) have provided value to the teams that were willing to pay them.
Free agency, almost overnight, became an efficient way to buy wins. I'm guessing that's not a permanent change.