[alnorth]

Back to the DH:

The thing about a full-time DH that you need to remember is that the replacement isn't the same as the replacement for a position guy. If someone like Infante, Cain, Gordon, or Perez goes down, we're screwed because their replacement is going to be a massive downgrade and may not even be on the active roster now.

If you don't have a full-time DH, his replacement is not a AAA player. His replacement is the rest of your team. You are giving all of your starters 5 or 6 games off anyway, if you have them DH then your starting hitters fill out 1/3 of your DH spot for the season. (especially since Salvy will get at least 20 games off from catching and he's a good hitter) The other 2/3 comes from bench guys who were able to hit well enough to make your team. You can't compare the DH to a replacement-level player, because the replacements will all probably hit well enough to put up decent numbers.

12.5MM is a ton of money to pay in 2015 for someone who will only be a marginal upgrade over the other guys on the team who would pick up the slack, Butler really needs to blow up for that to make sense.