I can absolutely see saying “you hired me as a bridge until you were comfortable with the young guy, and I did that, but I’m not going to wait on surgery when I don’t even know if you want to play me if the starter goes down”.
Because at the end of the day some teams out of contention would probably still rather play a younger more long term option than the veteran in that spot if the starter goes down.
I can absolutely see saying “you hired me as a bridge until you were comfortable with the young guy, and I did that, but I’m not going to wait on surgery when I don’t even know if you want to play me if the starter goes down”.
Because at the end of the day some teams out of contention would probably still rather play a younger more long term option than the veteran in that spot if the starter goes down.