wade boggs chicken dinner said:
In Article XXIII(C)(f), which describes the competitive balance tax, players who are outrighted to the minors aren't included in the luxury tax calculations. We know that. The issue is whether a player who has elected free agency pursuant to Article XX would be counted. Since the consensus seemed to be that if Craig elected free agency after this season (which again was his right even before this last call-up), his salary would not be counted by the luxury tax purposes - and since this makes sense with the intent of Article XXIII, which was to count players on the Active List, I will go ahead and conclude that DD knows what he is doing and is not costing Henry multiple millions of dollars in luxury tax payments by making this meaningless roster move.
The bolded from the section of the CBA I posted that you quoted specifically states that. "Such Player shall not be entitled to receive termination pay.". i.e. if Craig at any point elects free agency as opposed to accepting being outrighted and assigned to an mL roster, electing FA on October 15th after spending the majority of the season off the 40 man roster, etc., he gives up his contract in the process. Basically the player can't opt for free agency and still get paid. The only way he isn't obligated to play within the Red Sox organization but still draws his salary is if the Red Sox themselves elect to release him, terminating his contract from their end.
Like I said, what this really does is remove Craig's ability to opt out on October 15th, as he is now on the 40 man roster. Going forward if the club should outright him he has the option to choose free agency and forfeit the rest of his remaining contract at that time. If he wants to keep his contract he needs to accept the assignment. At least that is my reading of what the CBA refers to as "termination pay", as it is immediately followed with a clear statement as to what is paid (travel expenses to their home state or new team, whichever is cheaper).
What will be interesting is if some time from the start of next season through the year if the club should outright him while maintaining less than a full 40 man roster, as that would be a pretty clear "we're dodging the luxury tax" statement if ever there was one. But then how often do teams intentionally hang out below the 40 man roster limit?
If Allen Craig could find himself again he would be an ideal addition to the 2016 club really. His weak OF range would be acceptable in Fenway's LF, making an ideal 4th OF to pair with JBJ, Betts, and Castillo. He'd bring pop at the plate and could take LF while two of the other three are playing the more difficult fielding positions. As he's right handed and Bradley has, up until this month, featured a big platoon split even when he was hitting in AAA this season, a worthwhile 4 man rotation giving Bradley the day off against all LHP should the split return, and letting Craig effectively spell Betts and Castillo against RHP by playing whomever is the regular LF in the vacated position. Something like 1.5 days off per week for each of Castillo and Bradley (with JBJ's against LHPs) and 1 day off per week for Betts, making 4 games per week for Craig.
He would also be a nice hedge against Hanley being truly cooked and unable to hit at 1B and/or a backup plan if Ortiz loses his ability to hit LHP permanently next season. Of course, that all depends heavily on Craig returning to his ~130 OPS+ career form pre-injury.