Re-signing Ethan Pocic is an assertive step toward contention or collapse

Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty ImagesSigning or letting Ethan Pocic walk is a decision defined by managing downside. Either decision contains downside and neither decision promises much in the way of upside.

Pocic will turn 27 before the 2022 season starts. He’s not getting bigger. He’s not getting quicker. He may be getting slightly stronger. But he’s certainly not getting more resilient.

Signing him entails accepting the downside risk of investing cap space in a player who cannot play, being forced once again to scramble to scrape together a plan B, or perhaps most dangerously, starting a player who is nominally healthy but who through incremental talent lost through injury is no longer…