Pirates: Ironic Statement

[lilspainishflea]

in 2015, after finishing with 98 wins, the Pirates cut payroll for the following season. Went from 98 wins to 78 wins. As Mark Madden said, you don't have that big of a swoon unless management is on board with it. Once again money uber allies with Nutting.

So where was the supplementing the core in 2016? Why so quick to dismantle that group?

This. 2016 was really what opened my eyes to Nutting's lack of commitment to anything meaningful. Before that I was a supporter.

I remember Happ wanted a 3 year deal at $12 million per. We were willing to give 2 years. So $12 million was a deal breaker. Instead, we signed Jon Niese for $6 million. We netted $6 million on that decision.

Happ had 3.18, 3.53, and 3.65 ERAs in the freaking AL East over the next 3 years and was a Cy Young Finalist in 2016.

Jon Niese had a 5.5 ERA and was out of baseball at the end of the year.

Nutting refused to spend $6 million on adequate pitching and that was the end of the Pirates' window. So don't talk to me about how "we're not the Yankees!" when Nutting was willing to discontinue a 98 win team over $6 million.

It's not about spending money now. I don't care that Nutting doesn't spend on a crap team and I don't expect him to. I'm done with him because he surrendered a playoff roster for $6 million.

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

and he'd be crazy to do that, he'll miss out on maybe $2-3 million total over the next 2 seasons if he goes through arbitration and passes on the offer and be in place for a 6-8 year $20+ million/year deal at age 30 after that.

Or he gets hurt and gets nothing at all.

That's always the reason that young guys take long deals like the one Reynolds may or may not take. Yeah, sure, most of the time it will cost them money if they stay health and keep producing for a long time. But on the other hand, most of the time it will pocket them a lot of extra money if they get hurt or quit producing.

There are always trade offs for both sides in deals like that.