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A thing I tell my kids all the time is that saying sorry is fine and all, but what matters is changing the behavior that led to having to apologize in the first place. Words are merely words without the actions to back them up, and an apology without this kind of change is nothing more than a plea for the offended party to stop being mad at the offender. An attempt to buy time, to change the subject.
The Pirates had their annual offseason fan fest over the weekend, and the main takeaway — whether from CEO Travis Williams or general manager Ben Cherington — is that the team is committed to winning. They want to win. They’re trying to build a winner. The most important thing is winning. Owner Bob Nutting isn’t in attendance and here to take your questions, no, but rest assured there’s nothing that man cares about more than winning. When asked if the team can extend young players like Oneil Cruz and Paul Skenes, Cherington responded with meaningless drivel about “creative ways” to keep the roster competitive, and that the most important way they can keep players in Pittsburgh is by winning.
Which is a paragraph-long way of implying that the Pirates know that they’re failing on the field, and are aware that fans are unhappy about it, but also have no interest in changing the behaviors that have upset fans, that have them starting chants for Nutting to sell the team at an official fan fest. Placating through platitudes is all they’ve got, which is why you can just assume that Skenes is as good as gone the moment he’s able to leave. You know, to a team that actually cares about winning, and not just one that says the word a bunch of times like they’re going to manifest a season outside of last place that way.
The Pirates’ Opening Day payroll in 2024 was $86.4 million, second-to-last in the league. They’re currently projected for under $74 million for 2025’s Opening Day, right around where they were in 2022. They signed free agent reliever Caleb Ferguson to a one-year, $3 million deal, coming off of a poor 2024 season. Elvis Alvarado was their other free agent signing; he’s a 26-year-old minor-league reliever. They brought back Andrew McCutchen to once again play the role of fan-favorite mascot-adjacent DH for his age-38 season — McCutchen is beloved and all, and he’s still got an above-average bat, but he shouldn’t be the most significant move of your offseason, is all.
Where’s the help for Skenes in the rotation, which featured the 22-year-old phenom posting a 214 ERA+, and their next-best starter at a just-below-average 99. Skenes posted an ERA of 1.96, and the next-lowest among regular starters was Jared Jones’ 4.14 mark. Luis Ortiz, who split time between the rotation and bullpen, managed a 3.22 ERA in his 15 starts, as well, but he was dealt to Cleveland in a deal for Spencer Horwitz. Losing Ortiz while adding Horwitz isn’t going to be nearly enough for a lineup that featured McCutchen as one of its top three performers. Again, he’s just a little above-average at this point, and probably isn’t going to get better the older he gets. There’s way too much riding on the good starters and good hitters that are there, is the thing.
The rotation isn’t good enough, the lineup is abysmal — only the Marlins and the White Sox, a team that set the single-season loss record, had worse lineups by OPS+ in 2024. And yet, all they’ve got to give fans at the offseason fan fest is assurances that the guy not spending any money to try to improve the team actually does care about winning, and that they’re actively trying to win, can’t you tell how much they’re trying?
This quote from Williams is incredible to me, especially in light of everything you just read: “We know that there is frustration, frustration because we are not winning, with the expectations of winning… At the end of the day, that’s not due to lack of commitment to want to win.” There’s one way to prove this commitment, and cutting payroll after a season in which it was already one of the lowest in the league ain’t it. It’s no wonder the Dodgers can sign everyone — they actually have a commitment to winning, one that’s tangible, and they’re willing to spend the resources they have.
The Pirates have words and money they won’t spend, money that they pretend they don’t have despite years of reporting and basic math that says otherwise, which makes the words worthless. They’re in the weak-as-can-be NL Central, however, and the postseason already expanded once, and might expand again in a couple of years thanks to the influence of owners like Nutting, so… from their point of view, why bother to try? Why try when revenue-sharing is going to end up increasing even more in a few years to compensate for the changes in broadcasting? Why try when the punishment for multiple grievances against your team for failure to spend those revenue-sharing dollars has been nothing at all to this point? Why try when, for some reason, an average of 21,000 fans still show up in PNC Park every home game? Why try when simply saying you care about winning seems to be enough, and no one can actually make you sell and end the grift, and you don’t even have to show up for the Q&A portion of the fan fest where someone can call you out on all of this?
“We know, at the end of the day, this is all passion that has turned into frustration relative to winning,” Williams told the assembled fans. Are the Pirates going to do anything about that frustration, though? Or are they committed to throwing up their hands and talking about how committed they are, we understand why you’re upset, we’re sorry that happened to you, we’re trying to find the guy who did this, etc., once per year at fan fest? Given the shape of their offseason, you already know the answer.
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