What exactly was said? What I read from Cora was that it would be a difficult adjustment for Hanley-words to that effect. I didn't get that he thought Hanley would cause problems or anything like that.
The vesting option put DD and Cora in a bad position from the start. They tried to handle it in a smart way, and they still ended up taking a lot of flak for it.
I refuse to believe a 22 million vesting option didn't have SOMETHING to do with it (combined with some very lackluster numbers after a promising start).
Even if the column by Passan was valid, it was from early in the 2015 season. The last few years the reports on Hanley seem to be nothing but positive. So that has to be taken into account too.
I think JBJ is a case where WAR does become a really useful measurement.
JBJ's 2017 numbers worked out to a 2.2 fWAR.
I'd call that disappointing (especially since his 2016 fWAR was 5.3) but acceptable.