in the calkins on julio thread, captain97 talked about (and i agree) dipotos penchant to paying unproven, cheap, cost controlled players. i find it amusing that julio will make 20 million a year starting in 2025 and ronald acuna will not make 20 mill in any year on his first extension. now, if julio starting this year played like trout starting with his first full season, then the contract is a huge boon for the mariners.
here is the point of this post though. how do these mindsets correlate with each other? we have to pay julio now because if he is a top 5 player in mlb we cant pay him come free agency. the mariners paying ohtani 700+ million in free agency.
if the mariners can pay for ohtani, then it would seem like they could have kept julio cheap for 6 years and then pay him too.