Do you really find DD girly?
I don't doubt at all that DD wanted Hanley's vesting option gone.
I suspect there was a LOT of discussion before this season about exactly how they were going to handle this, including what they were going to say if they DFA'd Hanley.
I suspect this story was partially to allay concerns about the Players Union objecting.
And it's pretty clearly 100% BS that the option had nothing to do with the decision.
But I really don't expect to get the actual truth from management a lot of the time. Because they have to play the PR game, it's part of the deal.