Well, they didn't bring him back for his defense, though the numbers showed his bat was heading in the wrong direction too. Hard to know if he's slumping or if the age curve accelerated - maybe it would have already caught up to him in a full season last year. It could also be due to the mental and physical strain of the past year-plus, given his medical condition. Obviously what we learned last week is even minor injuries can drag Didi down more than a fully healthy player.
Moving on from Freddy wasn't a bad decision at the time but the Crawford-Kingery-Segura-Didi chain of events sure is a disaster, and they'll still have to ditch one or more of the three guys they got next year if they decide to keep being all-in and play the SS market. I figured that would mean finally trading Jean and putting Didi at 2B, but right now it seems like it would be the opposite.
Two or three years from now we may also still wonder if it should have been Machado rather than Bryce, though the latter has certainly delivered both as a player and a star.