There’s no way this is a serious team. That’s the only conclusion I’ve got after reading Bob Nightengale’s report on the Pirates trade deadline plan, which is apparently to be aggressive, as long as being aggressive costs zero extra dollars.
What do you mean you want to be aggressive at the deadline but you’re not increasing payroll? News flash, when you bring in new players, better players, actual bullpen help, the payroll goes up. That’s the whole transaction. That’s what aggressive means literally everywhere else in professional sports, and somehow the Pirates think they found a workaround.
And I already know what the workaround is. They’re going to count the guys coming off the injured list as new additions. That’s exactly the logic in their head, and another outlet already spelled it out in print, days before Nightengale’s report even ran.
The Pirates Trade Deadline Plan Was Already Written, They Just Called It Reinforcements
Go read the deadline preview MLB.com put out a few days ago. Spencer Horwitz and Endy Rodríguez are both working their way back from injury, and the site describes them, in print, as in-house additions to the lineup. And in the bullpen, they already ran the play. Wilber Dotel got activated off the injured list yesterday for that doubleheader against Cleveland, and Evan Sisk is working his way back too. New additions, in-house additions, whatever you want to call it, it’s the same trick, and half of it already happened before the deadline even got here.
Guys who are already on the roster, already getting paid, walking back out of the training room and getting treated like a trade. The Pirates are going to point at their own guys jogging out of the trainer’s room and call that AGGRESSIVE.
Now I’ll give Ben Cherington this much. This isn’t a GM who’s done nothing all year. They signed Ryan O’Hearn to a two-year, $29 million deal over the winter. They gave Marcell Ozuna $12 million for one season. They traded for Brandon Lowe and his $11.5 million salary. That’s real money for a franchise that usually treats a payroll increase like a personal insult, and it’s a big part of why this offense leads the sport in runs scored right now. Fine. I’ll say it.
But that is exactly what makes the deadline stance so infuriating. They already proved the budget exists. They already proved they’ll spend when they actually want a player. So the one time of year that matters most, the trade deadline, with a bullpen that’s actively losing them games, is the one time they decide the wallet stays shut and the injured list becomes the trade market.
Pittsburgh is leading all of baseball in runs scored, 516 of them at the break, more than anybody in the sport, and they’re 51-48, right in the thick of the Wild Card race. The rotation’s fine. The offense is legitimately one of the best in baseball. The only real hole is the bullpen, and it’s not a small one, a 4.46 ERA and 18 blown saves in 37 chances, 23rd in baseball. One real arm, one actual trade that costs actual money before August 3, and this team is scary in October. Instead Cherington’s plan is to wait for guys who are already hurt to walk back onto the field and count that as the fix.
The Math Bob Nutting Doesn’t Want You Doing
The Pirates are sitting at around $102 million in payroll right now, 23rd out of 30 teams, the eighth lowest number in baseball, and that number gives the whole thing away. The Dodgers are sitting at $301 million, the Mets at $328 million, the Yankees at $292 million. Pittsburgh’s $102 million is somehow the most this franchise has spent since 2016, and it still doesn’t crack the middle of the league.
Bob, buddy, you’ve owned this team since 2007, and you’ve run a bottom five payroll in 16 of the last 19 years since you took over. A team that leads all of baseball in runs scored was never supposed to happen on your watch, and you still found a way to make the trade deadline about savings.
Bob Nutting is a tool. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it forever, I can’t stand the guy. And yeah, I know “sell the team” is the thing every fed up fan says about every cheap owner in every sport. I know that. But I mean it this time. This team is good enough to matter and it’s being run by a guy who thinks a reliever coming off the injured list counts as a trade deadline move.
Sell the Pirates, Bob. Please, for the love of god, just sell the Pirates.
