The downside would be that at 33 he does even worse than last year, and they still give him a bunch of starts waiting to see if he will come around. For even more downside, they could be paying him however many million that it takes to sign him. And since you wanted downside, they could do all of that and lose out on a player that could help the team but they didn't have a roster spot for him. I'm fine with signing him, if it is on the cheap and incentive laden and they don't give him too many chances to see if he has it or not. Lose out on what player ? are you just thinking about potential cuts