You obviously don’t understand deferred and owed money. It is money that does not count towards the mlb roster spend but is still owed by the business.
Steve Phillips when he was GM of the Mets agrees to pay Bobby Bonilla an amount every year for 100 yrs or something. That money doesn’t count towards the 2025 salary number. However, the org still needs to pay it.
A lot of insiders have questioned how much is really available to spend apart from special cost centers set up for the Ohtanis and Sotos of the world.
The industry speculation was that if the Jays did sign 3-4 of the big name FAs, it would be only with the anticipation that Vlad’s money would be coming off the books and using that allocation.
Rogers being probably THE richest owner, has never translated to spend as such.
Plus we have Shapiro, who seems to have a fiscal governor.
Regardless, all speculation at this point.