Haven't seen this behavior, but saw something weird with Miller.
The entire off-season he wanted a 4-year deal, I think for $11m a year? Nobody bit at all. Even though at the top of his game, I guess the GMs (wisely) didn't want to commit to that for a 33yo reliever.
As soon as ST started he dropped his demand all the way down to $7.5m for one year. And then several teams (very unwisely) got into a ridiculous bidding war. It didn't end until the start of the regular season (which itself seems a bit specious) and he ended up with $28m or something for one year, which is a bit ridiculous. The icing on the cake is that he was signed by Atlanta, which already had arguably the best LH closer in the game.
And I bet the whole thing repeats next year.
Hopefully the GM AI logic will be tweaked so that they have a rough idea of a cap on what they're willing to spend on any player. IMO there's no reliever that's ever worth in the neighborhood of $30m -- they are just too unreliable, and they don't contribute enough to wins even in a good year to be worth that much moolah.
My guess is the aversion to multi-year deals for veteran relievers is why you see all the churn with Britton.