My rationale for trading Ledee isn't this year's salary, it's next year. Ledee was declining a bit and he wouldn't have been worth the 8.6mil for seasons 18 and 19. This is exactly the kinds of trades real GMs make if they aren't going to be a contender. Plus, I underestimated Vazquez' arb salary by about 1mil, and Vazquez is every bit as good for my team as Cooper.
By the way, I made two more trades:
El Paso gets 4.6mil (2 years) C Juan Urbina and 343k pitching prospect William Jackson. Santa Fe gets pitching prospect Jose Pineda and shortstop prospect Marcus Armstrong. I figured there would be a cheaper replacement for Urbina in FA, plus this clears a bit of salary for a pitcher.
Norfolk gets 1B Ahmed Ramirez' 5mil/3yrs contract (ok, he can still hit a bit) and 500k 2B Douglas Malone. Santa Fe gets 327k LF Rabbit Hudson, who hasn't played in the majors since season 7 and is basically a scrap heap find that can get me through the season.
These are exactly the kind of deals csherwood made all those seasons ago: a huge multi-year contract and another player for a player similar to the other player.