The price for those guys was always going to be above $200 in my opinion. And no one else was able to sign them up until now either, so we can deduce it would have taken a substantial offer to get them to break their "wait and see" mode, that price tag was over $200 million. Always was.
Honestly, they could be fine with Montgomery + Giolito. Jordan won't cost you a draft pick, and if Breslow/Bailey think they can fix Giolito he could be the pickup of the offseason.
I honestly believe that we have more of a chance of signing Montgomery with Yamamoto going to LA opposed to NYY, if the Yankees signed Yamamoto they'd probably be ok with letting Cole opt out and walk. Why not? you can replace him with a 25 year old ace and take that money and try to resign Soto. (they couldn't have all three and avoid being over the threshold for a 4th year!!!!!) The Yankees won't have the same mentality with Montgomery, but LA would have made a strong run at him if the Yankees landed Yamamoto EDIT: just because they hypothetically have the best position to sign Montgomery doesn't mean they will. As a matter of fact they've put us in a position to believe they will not.
I truly believe this, but I'm also starting to realize that all this means jack squat if ownership won't give Breslow the checkbook. I actually really like Breslow a lot, from his philosophy and focus on pitching and the guys he has brought in like Bailey. But the reality is, without allowing him the ability to go out and sign real pitching talent, it's going to take a few years for his system to get pitchers developed and into the majors. He doesn't have that with this fan base, they are going to do to Breslow what the Patriots did to Mac Jones. That's me being cynical perhaps, and assuming Breslow can't sign guys because of ownership is pure conjecture on my part. But I think I have very good reason to make that latter assumption. We are a big market team, and our biggest free agent signing the past ten years have been David Price and Trevor Story. And one of those guys signing is almost a decade apart from today.