He's priced at 73 so you'd think that 95 is around the mark that you need for him to make enough cash to be a viable stepping stone/starting pick. Of course that get's him into D6 calculations, but having someone who'll just require 2 trades to get to an uber premo mid will be handy as it's a pretty quick upgrade. I genuinely think that Daicos could be that D6 in any event.
He needs to be a keeper at that price. There's no alternative.
I hate the term stepping stone because it implies that a failed pick is actually progressing. If you're making a pick that makes less cash AND contributes less points, that's not a good pick.
If Sicily isn't a keeper then he's cost you cash, trades and points.
Sicily works against a rookie if he becomes a keeper and you save those trades.
To be fair, I think 95+ would be a keeper number for him if he plays 22, you're picking your starting D6 and limiting upgrade targets but you've gained two trades so that's a fair payoff. Unless I'm wildly wrong on where I think defender premium scoring will be and it's much higher.
The problem is if he goes 90 and isn't a premium.
You've spent effectively 82 points to get 90 (he's priced at 82, not 73 btw). A really poor rookie is going to out produce that, so if you start a 123k rookie averaging 40, you're already well ahead on cash generation AND on field points because you still get the other ~60 points to spend somewhere else in your team.
Everyone sees 90 points and goes "that's great", but 70 from a 150k rookie is better than 90 from a 450k pick assuming that you've got somewhere to spend that 300k. Now that 450k pick suddenly becomes a lot better if you save two trades from it as a 450k pick producing 95 is better than a 545k pick producing 100 because in that scenario, you're the one with the extra 17 points somewhere else.
Yes there is some diminishing returns on spending cash elsewhere, Marshall to Gawn might only produce 10 of the 22 point gap but the two trades again factors in on that comparison and is why we target those "no value" premium picks with the value being the trades saved and it's also why when those picks fail they end your season so rapidly!