Bingo. The more I think about the GM's job, the more I believe that the constraint of having 25 players at a time on the roster is the biggest limiting factor in constructing a championship team. WAR is a nice simplification of the issue: to construct a 100-win team, you need about 50 WAR in that one season. Voila, you need to achieve 2 WAR on average from every slot on your roster. Utility players and relievers by nature of their jobs can rarely give you 2. And some guys will disappoint or be injured and not give you any WAR at all that year. So 4+ WAR players are gold. You can't win a pennant with 100 0.5-WAR players; you can't rely on players who amass 10 WAR but require 10 years to do it. To have a guy like Trout, who you can pencil in for pretty much 8 WAR every year, gives you quite a head start toward your 50. And if you're not aiming for 50, at least at some near-future point, why bother? You could offer 100 players for Trout. Still no deal.