Nobody spoke in absolutes. He asked for fantasy tips, and people told him that it would probably be Storen because reports had come out saying that it would probably be Storen.
It would be absolutely shocking if the FO told Gibby that Pillar should lead off and Osuna should close. The only reasonable assumption is that Gibbons decided these. It would be mildly surprising if Gibbons requested Venditte and Ceciliani and had Tepera and Carrera forced on him. I don't think the FO would cross their manager by forcing him to carry inferior players to the ones he wanted.
I do think that that FO should have overruled his preference for Tepera and Carrera.
Rafael Soriano declined a QO from the Yanks a few years ago. Storen was never likely to get one, but 45 saves and a sub-3 ERA would have taken the probability to something greater than 0. Oh well, not a huge deal.
When it comes to arb salaries for relievers the two biggest criteria are ERA and saves. Letting Storen get the saves this year and then leave via free agency would help keep Osuna's arb salary down.
Games haven't even started and we've seen four egregious decisions at least partially attributable to Gibbons:
- Pillar leading off
- Carrera over Pompey and Ceciliani (hell, I'd prefer Lake)
- Tepera
- Osuna closing (will cost the team hundreds of thousands of dollars)
Yeah. There really isn't an argument to be made for Carrera to stick around. He can't hit, and is a shockingly bad defender for a guy who runs as well as he does. He also hits left-handed, so there's not even the Saunders platoon excuse.
I really don't like that as justification for the trade. Gibby works for Shatkins. If he's using Hendriks in low-leverage spots in April you call him up and tell him to stop doing that.