Well, that was Shapiro’s knock on AA anyway. He promised a better development program that would consistently feed talent to the MLB team. And despite failing to accomplish that for 10 years in Cleveland, they bought it.
AA also wasn’t allowed to play in the deep end of the FA pool like these guys. Instead of being given the flexibility to just sign free agents like Reyes and Buehrle, he had to trade for them, then basically dare ownership to cut payroll. I don’t think they liked that kind of “managing up.” If they had just given him big free agent money up front, AA could have (and would have) used that prospect capital to improve the team in other ways.