You're right, the president is the key. To this day, I don't think we see the change of direction if a good president was in charge, even if the GM wanted to. I think a good president would've easily said, "wait a minute here, this goes against the plan we set out for the franchise, can't do it unless you're getting a big discount in both prospects and $$$".
Sadly, they only got $8M and I actually think getting rid of Escobar's team-friendly contract was part of the equation.