Waiting is not a betrayal of anything, ask the Astro fans!
You have 6 young pitchers vying for 4 starting spots, plus 3 more in AAA ball this year competing to be called up.
Do you want to bring in a veteran to take away their starts or give them a chance to develop?
An overpay for someone who won't have much value when this team is truly competitive or a patch to buy time and be flipped in July?
There's no right answer. Now if there was a 27 year old elite 3B out there . . .
But the SPs that are out there are either going to require gross overpays on long-term deals (limiting flexibility in 2020 and beyond, and no, Darvish is unlikely to be very good when he's 34-35 years old),
or maybe give you one more win over say LIvely. So not chasing them isn't a big deal, there are no franchise changers out there.
I'm not against spending, they spent $60M last year, bought 5 net WAR (more than Darvish would probably give you), picked up a half dozen prospects and have no "dead money."
I'd have no problem repeating that strategy this off-season. Except no position players other than bench depth, but I'd definitely look at strengthening the bullpen especially if you're going to go with young SPs.
If Middleton wants to blow through $20M, I'd say another GCL team, upgrades to coaches, facilities, player salaries and housing through out the minor league system, etc. would have far more long-term value.
And Klentak has just hired 5 people. Plus he built an analytics staff - so there's the first million spent!
Give Sal every penny you can obtain through trades for allocations. Bring in a lot of veterans to ST on minor/major league deals with bonuses. Trade for Verlander type contracts (a couple high priced years). Throw in money in July trades to get better prospects.
There are lots of ways to redistribute Middleton's money without taking on long-term dubious commitments.