Another factor in this is the Collective Bargaining Agreement expires on December 1, 2016, so after next season, there's likely going to be changes. What that involves we don't know yet, but a reasonable expectation would be a raising of the luxury tax number and ownership may be willing to go over the $189M now anticipating an increase in that LT number that will be easier to get under in the future and reset their tax level based on a higher ceiling.They can spend whatever they want. The assumption that they will not cross the luxury tax line is not necessarily a correct one and many people here that follow the teams finances closely believe they will, in fact, do that. Henry himself last offseason said he'd be willing to go over it to bring Lester back and that they would certainly consider crossing over it even if it was only for one season. If they sign a Price for $30, they can almost meet that alone with Ortiz, Hanigan and Koji coming off the books and that doesn't even consider Buchholz at another $13M option that he may or may not prove worth gambling on, the young SP making a Miley expendable and not many holes to fill going into 2017. Factor in that the luxury line will almost certainly be rising for 2017 and it's not hard to see that the Sox aren't nearly concerned as the $189M number as some here believe they are, since they almost certainly can get back under it a yer later.
I think HillBilly's antennae perked up because it's just strange wording. It's not like a family having more money to spend on Christmas this year because mom won the 50/50 at the church fundraiser. So to say they have a tremendous amount of money to spend this offseason seems odd or implies that he has some kind of insider knowledge that they are planning to go the route of LAD or NYY and completely blow through the cap line with no plans to pay it mind going forward, like they used to.
There's also always the possibility they massively change or even scrap the entire system and it all may become moot, although I would think both sides wouldn't want to make major changes at this point given the prosperity of the game and everyone in it over this last agreement.
Which brings up an interesting tangent. We usually hear 12-18 months in advance of the end of a CBA that negotiations have started on the next one. It's odd we haven't heard anything about it at all up until now.