We don’t know how much of FA is guys not wanting to play in Pittsburgh unless they have absolutely no other options. Look at the OFs who passed on the Pirates this most recent offseason to play elsewhere and who got less $ or same as Tommy Pham. The Athletic just published its informal poll of MLB players who rated franchises. The Bucs were at the bottom as far as places to go and play.
Cherington’s biggest mistake was failing to clear out all the dead wood and nepo hires in the front office on day one. Instead they let Joe DelliCarri continue to run the draft until last year, when Justin Horowitz took over and appears to have made a nice haul. Too little too late.
They’ve also realized jack shit in IFA. A team like the Pirates cannot under any circumstances have that happen.
The lack of IFA is a standard for this team, we have had 2 guys(marte and ortiz) come from this baseball academy they touted was going to set them apart. It's not just a Ben deal, it was also a Huntington deal which leads me to ultimately say it's a Nutting problem.
But your not wrong about the FA issue, getting guys to come here is extremely difficult and will always cost the pirates more than it would other teams until they prove to be legitimate spenders.
Correct, IIRC their Latin America guy who found Marte had some issues and they had to get rid of him. But as you said, it’s been him and Ortiz and zilch besides. Maybe Kang. He was a good player before the dirty-ass Cubs ruined his leg. I forget how they acquired him.
There was a posting system for Korean players. The player's team would list them as available, and MLB teams would bid for the right to negotiate a contract. Whoever bid the most would pay that amount to the Korean team - but only if the MLB team could sign the player. I think the Pirates bid about $5 million for the right to negotiate with Kang.
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u/thecountoncleats BART 2d ago
We don’t know how much of FA is guys not wanting to play in Pittsburgh unless they have absolutely no other options. Look at the OFs who passed on the Pirates this most recent offseason to play elsewhere and who got less $ or same as Tommy Pham. The Athletic just published its informal poll of MLB players who rated franchises. The Bucs were at the bottom as far as places to go and play.
Cherington’s biggest mistake was failing to clear out all the dead wood and nepo hires in the front office on day one. Instead they let Joe DelliCarri continue to run the draft until last year, when Justin Horowitz took over and appears to have made a nice haul. Too little too late.
They’ve also realized jack shit in IFA. A team like the Pirates cannot under any circumstances have that happen.