Good Opinion Haver
Joined: Jun. 2018
Posts: 1,825
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Instead of buying out Steen ourselves and trading away Bozak, who has some limited no trade protection and has been quietly great, I would rather explore trading Allen and Steen as a package deal (and maybe adding a lower tier prospect or a pick to further entice taking away Steen), selling high on Allen who, though he has been excellent, is paid too much to be backup, while getting that other team to buyout Steen for us. That would free up a ton of money to re-sign Pietrangelo and the RFAs.
Steen is salaried at $3.5million in the last year of his contract, at a cap hit of $5.75million. A buyout would knock down the cap hit to $3.4million next year and $1.16million the following year, while he would get paid about $2.3million in real dollars. If we handshake Steen to sign him back after the buyout, Brooks Orpick-style, at $1.2million for the final year, that may be enough to convince Steen to waive his own no trade protection and go along with the trade and buyout on another team, as the one year deal and the buyout money would net him the $3.5million he would have gotten on the last year of his contract anyway. It basically would amount to him just doing some paperwork to help keep the team competitive.
Also worth noting that Foley hasn't played in years and Blais and Pietrangelo likely get less (but at max term), though Dunn likely gets more.