Well, management can admit the mistake now that management has changed!
It still wasn't a terrible contract. The correct and fair reponse to a flawed and unfair system, done solely because of that system. In retrospect they could have just optioned him and manipulated his service time, and in retrospect it doesn't even look like it would have been manipulation, but it was the wrong move at the time. And like all young players he was still paid so little in its first three years, even with his poor production, that the extra money he might earn isn't even particularly odious.
Even this year, if he's an adequate bench player who still plays good and versatile defense, $4 million isn't so bad (look at Miller, or Velasquez). 2022 and 2023 will be a little harder to swallow but still not so much that he's untradeable, and if he does turn it around he's still locked up at the normal rate for a decent starting middle IF (i.e. the same as Didi or Segura but at today's prices) from 2024-2026. He sure does have to hit a lot better to be the Merrifield/Zobrist player they turned him into, let alone an everyday player at one spot.
Brogdon pulled from the game with a possible injury, dang.
