We need to address the elephant in the room which is that the team has burned through most of the financial flexibility we gained since our last competitive window. We have about $120 million in guaranteed salaries in 2023 (not counting arb). $75 million of that is allocated to Springer, Berrios, Kikuchi, Ryu, and Grichuk alone. For arb eligible players, guys like Bichette, Guerrero, Teoscar, and Romano are due for big raises.
Signing Guerrero to a lifetime mega-deal is already a risk from a performance perspective, but I honestly question if we even have the financial flexibility to fill the rest of holes on the team if Vlad starts making $35 million.