Wow, management actively trying to recruit a few incompetent employees to their teams, in order to not have to lay off any of their good employees at stack-rank time! Now that is a pathological system.
Isn't it noble in a bizarre sort of way? It sounds like the manager is really looking out for his team. Or maybe he used to refuse to "play the game" until he had to fire a good employee.
Ya, I think that's actually the mark of a great manager... making sure he's got fodder for the inevitable wood chipper so to speak.