Yres, very smart - use some of the excess cap space we had in 2024 to reduce Bateman's cap hit in 2025 and 2026, freeing up money we can spend elsewhere and reducing the amount of freight we'd have to pay to get rid of him. Which will still be massive, to be clear - but at least it puts a chunk of the pain in 2024, where we can't use it for anything else anymore.
Thinking about it, I wonder if Bateman going to England happened just after Utoikamanu told the club he was leaving. Some of that money might have been used to front load Stefano if he'd stayed, but when it became clear he wasn't going to it got deployed elsewhere ie helping us get out from under the monstrosity of the Bateman contract.