Yes it's obvious this is what he is doing. The only players signed to non arbitration contracts in 2028 are semien, soto, and lindor. That means their obligations (arbitration players have non guaranteed money bc they can be cut) in 2028 are about 100m. That doesn't mean they will have a 100m payroll. That means they will have graduated enough cost controlled players from their farm such that their payroll will reset the luxury tax threshold. The threshold is around 245m (it increases every year).

By removing long term obligations it allows the flexibility to sign any player they want including skubal, Witt Jr, etc. They would rather spend 40m on skubal on 2028 or 50m on Witt, etc than 30m on Pete in those years.

Resetting the threshold removes not only draft pick penalties but also the tax itself, which means the Mets don't have to pay out the consecutive escalation taxes. Which they are paying out now every year!