Well no, we weren't above .500 in the first half of 2015. We flirted with .500 but .500 is the best we got and we reached that on June 21. Then we sold most of our big league assets and Freeman missed a good chunk of time. Safe to say we could have won around 10 more games had we not traded away Uribe, Johnson, Wood, etc. and had Freeman not gotten hurt. Of course a 75ish win team isn't great either, but the point stands.
Inflation isn't going to change the fact we will most likely stick to low budget relievers like we did most of the 90's and 2000's. We aren't signing any high dollar relief FA's and it's unlikely any current players still here will be making over 2-3 million at most. At least half the pen will likely be making right around league minimum.
And regardless if they sign anyone to a 3 year deal, that is not likely to affect decisions for the 2019 season. A FO would clearly know that they have salaries expiring at the end of following season. No one would be so short sighted to let a 1 year contract affect the decision to sign a legitimate star to a 6 year deal, if it's a player they really wanted.
