I think it's just 2% and it belongs to Gillick, but that's also not how really how the partnership works.
But this one is. He pushed for things and was directly involved in multiple big contracts, not only this time but going back to Howard's extension and bringing in AJ Burnett. He and the people he hired - these last six years and also before then - created the circumstances that made this $200 million payroll necessary, and in swapping Kapler for Girardi he suggested the roster was still playoff caliber, but still wasn't willing to exceed the CBT to make it better. And hiring Dombrowski made the same statement. Plus he very clearly instructed Dombrowski to sign JT while also not approving any serious $ to round out the roster. Now we have a season that is not only about the failure of Neris/Bradley and Moore/Anderson when spending more money is what a contender would have done, but also one with a profound bottoming out of young cheap players that might have otherwise filled a few holes.
Middleton has chosen to hire baseball presidents, but fundamentally, he is Bill Giles/Monty (and Gillick in his interim year): the CEO of the team, with a baseball person and a biz person below him. And he sure isn't good at it.
