This is anything but a complaint as I love how challenging they have made things for me in this save, but man those house rules make it difficult to solve roster management problems.
(Perhaps too much so as we enter the modern era and full-blown free-agency and skyrocketing salaries - I am considering ticking up our trade allocation from 4 to 5 but not just yet, I'll think on it some more.)
We entered this offseason deep in the red even after a slight budget increase and things are only going to get tighter as previously discussed with Bonds and Van Slyke's big chunk of payroll onto which we voluntarily added Bobby Bo.
Long story short, we need to dump some salary in as efficient a way as possible given the trade limit in place. We end up doing so in one fell swoop by sending both Gant and Burks to the Red Sox because, well, they're doing it tough and look like they need some help...
As you can see, Carlos is a nice enough prospect and we should get some mileage out of him in a couple years.
We also free up another CC spot and add a guy we really should never have traded away in this swap with the Cards that also bolsters the coffers a wee bit:
We've understandably taken a bit of a hit at the turnstiles but the cash position looks much better for it.