With all the IFers they brought in, Sogard can be DFA'd whenever.
Look, if you watch him for a game or two, he doesn't jump off the page. But if you watch him day in and day out, you'll eventually see him do some baseball stuff.
This supposes that all balls are the same. Some pitches outside the zone are barely outside the zone and he's more likely to chase. If a pitcher is living on the edge of the zone, rather than down the middle or throwing waste pitches, Story will be more likely to chase.
If you pinch hit Masa for Mayer/Rafaela/Durbin it probably necessitates using IKF or additional positional movements as Masa can't field those positions.
Nah, that's not a good analogy as a lifeboat only prevents a passenger from dying rather than getting to their destination on time. This would be like if every ocean liner had an empty liner behind it just in case it broke down so that all the passengers could disembark. The lifeboats are Tyler McDonough and other guys that are barely good enough for AAA and should never get a call to MLB.