I don't get why anyone would want to hang onto Smith at this point.
You can blame the system all you want but after watching AD come in and completely outplay him, that excuse has run thin IMO.
If they're gonna rebuild, then rebuild and don't half ass it.
I'd drop all the dead weight on this squad, starting with him..
For starters, he was better last year than he has been this year. I think we can all agree on that. If that's true, then the possibility exists that he can return to that level. Maybe it's because of his conditioning, or because he got paid and doesn't care, or because of AV's system, or some combination of all of them. Whatever the reason, we know he has the potential to play better than he has been.
Now, that by itself isn't an endorsement for keeping him. I could also say that we can't trade everyone and we will still need players to fill out the roster after all the other trades are done, but even that isn't enough to ensure his place on the team.
The most convincing argument I can give you is that unless we can find a trade for him, which seems unlikely right now, then no other options make sense. We can waive him, sure, but he is unlikely to be claimed and that won't help his trade value any. We could send him down after he clears, but the majority of his cap hit would still count. We could buy him out, but then we are stuck with 6 years of penalties on top of the penalties we already have for Girardi. So our best bet is probably just to hold onto him and hope he turns it around. If he does, them maybe we can find a trade partner for him down the road. With the team about to go through a rebuild, it is going to be a couple years before we can really think about competing again. By then, his contract will almost be done. There's no point in hamstringing the team for years to come with a buyout cap hit when we aren't going to the need that cap space in the immediate future.