I think there is still some Melvin-era thinking going on here. They are playing for 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, etc. The Stearns era will never be defined by targeting certain years. It is unwise to do that anyway, as we can not control what anyone else in baseball is doing. Stearns could not control this year's crazy FA market and there was no he was ever going to risk being stuck with a bad contract in 2023-2024 to help the 2020 team. They have repeatedly proven they will spend money when the time is right, but they will be very reluctant to sacrifice future flexibility to do so. So I highly doubt they will ever sacrifice 2023 for 2021-2022. They were never going to pay $18 million to a 34-year-old Moustakas or Grandal in 2023. The Cain contract was a one-off, not a trend.