If Wood accepts and brings him much closer to that budget, he couldn't afford any of those players, which would be the problem. No necessarily, it just means he might have to trade Marquis to pay for Wood's contract. If he does have a firm budget, I still can't see how they're looking at Peavy, Abreu, or Ibanez regardless of Wood's situation. A) You can't just decide to trade Marquis. Odds are you'll have to pick up a huge chunk of his salary. B) If he's got, let's say, $12-14m left, he can look at any of those guys. But if Wood accepts he can't. I really don't understand why you are having trouble understanding the limitations of a budget.