No longer possessed of the kind of wealth that would allow them to peruse the aisles at Whole Foods, Theo Epstein’s front office has taken the Costco approach when it comes to shopping for a bullpen. Which is to say they’re buying in bulk at really low per-unit costs while holding onto every receipt so they can make sure they get their money back on stuff they find out they don’t need.
With apologies for reducing actual people to mass quantities of household goods, the analogy holds pretty well. That’s actually how it’s been for most of the past several springs, it’s just that the overall lack of spending has people paying more attention this time.