I get what you mean. The disconnect here is that I’m talking about it limiting you in-season with respect to going over that threshold. We all agree that what they did here doesn’t swing what they offered Yamamoto or Snell. It probably will (and should) be a limiting factor with lesser moves. So the discussion ultimately comes down to how you weigh him up versus adding something like another solid but unspectacular Reliever and a cheaper bench guy.
The other part here is what they think they’re adding. I don’t know what reliable at the plate means to you specifically, but he’s fallen off of a cliff at the plate in the last 3-4 years. I would still call it passable on a bench level, which is fine if you’re playing high value defensive positions. This feels like a good time to point out that he played 81 Games in LF last year. I’m certainly not looking to pay for it if he’s going to play away from CF/2B. If the framing is a pure OF bench guy who can maybe fill in at 2B in rare spot duty, sure that’s a perfectly cromulent use of a roster spot and Merrifield as a player. The original framing around the reporting was a Super Utility guy. I think/hope they’re not that incompetent.