Scrimping on a manager when you have the revenue money available is an entirely different matter than not digging into your own money to pay for it. That wasn't what you said. You said they didn't pay managers well despite being the wealthiest owner. Those 2 things have absolutely nothing to do with one another.
Why the snark? Please get a life.
It absolutely can be a factor with certain franchises. For example, the Oakland A's. What is their ownership's willingness/ability to dig into its own pockets if for whatever reason it had to run in the red?
I am telling you that given the Lerner's pockets that reach to China, it would be an absolute non-factor even if they had to pay Joe Maddon money on a guaranteed 5 year deal.
The National's approach to this is incoherent on several fronts. They have a demonstrated record of churning through managers while being unwilling to pay market rate for new ones. Six managers in ten years.
Managers either matter a lot or they don't. If they don't -- if you undervalue them relative to the rest of mlb -- then it's very curious to fire one with two straight division titles and 95+ win seasons. They said today that they are looking for post season improvement -- nothing less than a WS championship is acceptable. But you cannot get a Mercedes at Toyota prices.
If past is prologue, they will go with someone at the discount store, probably young. And if he crashes and burns and loses the division -- because, for example, he cannot cope with a bullpen from hell or the next Bryce Harper injury -- ownership deserves to get torched for this one.
And I am not a big Dusty fan.
Edit -- and they did this, to Rizzo again, in the offseason, refusing his desperate attempt to shore up a bullpen from hell while conferring a contract on yet another Boras client, Matt Wieters, who posted the worst numbers in mlb at the position.
Their priorities are weird, and no, that move will not help them appreciably in resigning Bruce Harper.