You’re missing the point. Schobert is 25. He's made a Pro Bowl and may have made another if he didn't get hurt. He's going to be looking for big money next offseason, and he should. He's a really good player and he'll never be in this good of a position again with regards to his market. It's not about worrying about overpaying him. It's about what he commands, period.
I'm missing nothing. Here's what you said:
Some people are worried about Dorsey putting us in “cap hell” ... giving Schobert a ton of money would be a great way to do it.
Fans being worried about Dorsey putting us in cap hell is not a motivation for Dorsey to trade Schobert. If Dorsey wants to pay that for Schobert, he will.
Schobert is a really good player, but can we afford to give him top LB money long term with all the other guys we have? Almost certainly not. So, then it's about maximizing value. Maybe that is just waiting and getting a 3rd round compensatory pick. Maybe that's trading him for better value before he hits Free Agency if at all possible. It depends on a lot of things.
Any team to which we would trade him would know that he only has one year left on his deal, and that they are only getting him for a one- year rental before they'd have to pony up big bucks. That's going to limit his trade value. So what is the basis for assuming he'd be worth more to some other team for just one year than he'd be worth to us for that same year? How many other teams out there are 1) on target to make a serious playoff run, and 2) are as thin as we'd be at MLB without Schobert?
To put it differently...imagine if our roster was exactly as it is right now, minus Schobert. Ray Ray Armstrong is the only MLB on the entire roster, and we're all in a panic. Suddenly, Joe Schobert is on the market, looking for a one-year deal at $2.025M. We'd be absolutely
ecstatic if we were able to fill a hole, even for just a year, with a player that good for that cheap a salary. Even if we didn't think we could re-sign him, it would fill that hole and give us a whole additional year to find another long-term solution at that position. It would be a no-brainer acquisition.
I can't imagine us getting more in return for Schobert than 1) what he would contribute on the field this year, and 2) the 3rd round compensatory we'd get if he left next year. That's why I think this is baseless, media-generated speculation rather than something based on the Browns' actual thinking.