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The dividing line that I subscribe to does not suggest that money is meaningless.
My view is that the there is a distinct difference between "becoming" competitive and "staying" competitive.
The WAR paradigm viewed solely through the lens of "efficiency" ignores the realities of aging (old players are expensive and their production tends to drop), young players get better and are cheap.
The amount of flexibility a team has is vastly different if they are ALREADY paying $80-100 million before they reach 35 WAR vs they are paying $50 million when they get to 35 WAR. And if you're paying $117 million for only 15 WAR, this is evidence that your ability to spend money wisely is beyond abysmal.
If you KNOW that you're utterly and completely dreadful at something, why would you want more of it? What kind of sense would it make for a coach to encourage Shaq or Dwight Howard - (we need you on the free throw line more often)?
Honestly, while Seattle doesn't sign a lot of long deals ... how many 3-year (or more) contracts have they inked in the last decade that were worth the outlay? How many were imports and how many extensions to existing Ms?
IIRC, Ibanez is the only 3+ year contract that resulted in production that was not below outlay. After all the Sexson, Beltre, Vidro, Silva/Bradley disasters, Jack's first dip into the long-term pool was Figgins. Not exactly problem solved.
Could the Ms spend an extra 20-25 million in 2013? Sure. But, which kids do you write off completely - for multiple years - when you make that choice? Seager doesn't play before May if Carp doesn't get hurt. Saunders doesn't play at all if Guti doesn't go down. Jaso isn't even on the roster if most of blog-o-sphere were in charge during ST.
The Ms got very, very lucky in 2012 that Seager and Saunders got to play all year. So, is the call on which kids will post 110 OPS+ figures this year any more likely to be accurate in 2013 than 2012? THAT is my issue with going the FA route "immediately". I don't have any real faith that I know who will advance and who will wash out.
For me, when the six kids prove themselves and you know what your three black holes are - THEN you start plugging holes. For me, I do not subscribe to the notion that the club really knows where its black holes are ... yet.