A one year deal at pretty much nothing (that's why i said its just barely more than the minimum. 2 million for a player now a days is nothing). I guess i don't see what the downside is. If all those things you wrote hold true, you DFA and no fuss no muss. But if he continues to preform despite the outlier, then you have a guy who does 60 or so innings and minimal cost. Maybe even a trade chip.
It's not like they gave him 10 or 5 million. It's two. And its a one year deal.
Who was he blocking? What is keeping him taking away from?
At 3x the league minimum he's about a third of 1 war player which seems about right for him.