The Cost of Opting Out of Contracts

"I think that the Padres just like broke the brains of several front office. Yes," he said. "When in his life is it appropriate for him to be paid, Jim? Because he didn't get paid for that production on the front end." He was talking about Brian Reynolds' opt-out request but also talked about luxury tax and roster construction purposes. The fact that teams are not extracting every marginal dollar possible from their players doesn't mean they have different priorities than those you decide should happen.