WASHINGTON — Neal Huntington chose not to make a significant addition to his roster when the Pirates internally projected themselves to win 78 to 82 games this season. Instead, Huntington hoped it would outperform those projections and chose to rely on unproven young players and minor-league free agents to supplement a core that included Josh Bell and Jameson Taillon.
The Pirates slashed their payroll by nearly $13 million from opening day last season, trading Andrew McCutchen to the Giants, Gerrit Cole to the Astros and not spending a dollar on a major-league free agent. The moves sparked outrage across the industry as the players' union filed a grievance against the Pirates and three other teams for lack of spending.
While baseball's broken economic system will be formally addressed when negotiations begin for the next Collective Bargaining Agreement, players are at the mercy of owners who aren't prioritizing winning.
"There are some things that are out of the players’ control a little bit," Cole, the Pirates' players union representative the previous two seasons, told DKPittsburghSports.com Monday before the All-Star Home Run Derby at Nationals Park. "It’s on the owners. It’s on the other side. I think this rebuilding, this tanking, there’s a lot of words being thrown out that mean a lot of things. What it boils down to is players want to win, players put winning first. I just think that needs to be the focus of the entire league. There needs to be a refresher course going forward that fans want to see winning, fans want to see a good product on the field all the time. They want to see their favorite players, and they want to see good, competitive baseball."
Cole uttered those words hours before Bryce Harper, the Nationals' right fielder, raised his bat in the air as he watched his 19th home run of the finals land 434 feet away to dead center, giving him the Home Run Derby crown in his home ballpark. With his father, Ron, pitching to him, Harper hit nine home runs in the final 50 seconds of the finals to tie the Cubs' Kyle Schwarber.
It was a storybook finish fit for the grand event, and the immensely talented 25-year-old reminded us all to not be so cynical about the sport is lacking. However, Harper, one of the best in the sport, could soon be at the mercy of baseball's broken economic system.
Harper is set to become a free agent this offseason, and he'll likely be seeking a record long-term contract. Teams haven't been willing to hand out such contracts in recent years, though. The free-agent market went ice cold this past offseason, despite JD Martinez, Jake Arrieta and Yu Darvish being available. Martinez, who hit 45 home runs between the Tigers and Diamondbacks last season, and Arrieta had to wait until after spring training began to sign contracts with the Red Sox and Phillies, respectively.
A number of veterans went unsigned, leading the players association to hold a spring training for free agents at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla. While the Rockies spent over $100 million on relievers, a number of teams — including the Indians, who reached the World Series only two years ago — chose to watch from the sidelines.
The Pirates did the same. Rather than adding to a bullpen that lost Juan Nicasio and Tony Watson last season, Huntington signed several minor-league free agents and acquired Josh Smoker in a trade with the Mets. Following the departures of Cole and McCutchen, Scott Boras, the agent who represents Cole and Harper, accused the Pirates of tanking, citing how the front office continued to shed payroll despite the franchise's value skyrocketing over the past decade.
According to Forbes' Business of Baseball Report, the Pirates had the 10th-highest operating profit in the majors in 2017. Also, each of the 30 owners received $50 million for MLB's sale of BAMTech to Disney this spring. Yet, more teams seemed eager to shed payroll last winter.
The Marlins slashed payroll by nearly $16 million, trading Giancarlo Stanton to the Yankees, Marcell Ozuna to the Cardinals and Christian Yelich to the Brewers. Catcher JT Realmuto, their representative at the All-Star Game this week and among the best in the league at his respective position, requested a trade, only to be told no.
"It's not fun to hear people talk about tanking when you're still on the team," Realmuto said. "You don’t want to hear that. It is what it is, though. Baseball fans are pretty intelligent. They know what’s going on. We as players don’t feel like we’re tanking. We look at it like we’re building something here. We look more towards the building aspect. We just care about trying to win."
The Athletics also slashed $16 million in payroll, while the Rays dumped much of their core, including Corey Dickerson. Three of those four teams finished strong in the final week before the All-Star break — the Pirates won six in a row and eight of nine — but the logic behind their offseason inactivity is still a hot-button topic among players and executives around the league.
Tony Clark, executive director of the players association, told The Washington Post in a recent interview that front offices are having a negative impact on the on-field product. "This isn’t a player problem,” Clark said. “It’s reflective, I believe, of very deliberate business decisions. Players as a whole compete on every pitch and every at-bat. Our industry is predicated on competition from the top down. . . . What it appears that we are seeing in that regard is teams withdrawing from that competition for seasons at a time. It becomes challenging when it’s more than a couple of teams that are going that route, whereby you have a considerable chasm between those that are competing at one level and those that are competing at another.”
Eight of the 30 clubs in Major League Baseball are on pace for 95 or more losses, including the Orioles, who are about to join the group of teams that aren't pushing to field a playoff-caliber roster. Baltimore is set to trade shortstop Manny Machado, a four-time All-Star, within the next two weeks, as well as any other veterans of interest to contenders.
Although the Athletics have the best record in baseball over the past month and have won seven of their last 10 to improve to 13 games over .500, it's no secret what would have occurred had they struggled leading up to the break. "We all kind of knew if things weren’t going to change as of a few weeks ago that things could go in a certain direction we didn’t want them to," Blake Treinen, the Athletics' closer, said. "That fired us up."
That's how owners around the league operate now. It's no secret. After all, there's no incentive to spend more. In fact, the luxury tax has even scared off baseball's giants — the Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers and Cubs — from spending like they have in the past. Rob Manfred, MLB's commissioner, can only encourage a team to invest more into the on-the-field product.
It will take at least three more seasons for changes to be made. The union and MLB have a collective bargaining agreement through the 2021 season, though it appears talks could be as contentious as ever. Owners don't want a salary floor. Clark and the union don't want a salary cap.
"I wouldn’t say half the league isn’t trying," Yelich said. "Look at the standings right now. I’d say the majority of teams are within striking distance. The second Wild Card helps out a lot. There’s a lot of parity, I guess you could say. No one is running away with their division."
Trevor Bauer, a 27-year-old starting pitcher for the Indians who recently said he plans on signing only one-year contracts the rest of his career, views this current economic climate as nothing more than a trend that will stabilize. "It’s interesting," Bauer said. "It’s a small sample size right now. It will equal out at some times. Baseball is ripe with stuff like this, right? On the field, off the field. The history of baseball is what makes it so cool. The rise of the splitter, the cutter. That gets cycled out and replaced with something out. … It’s part of the drama. Longtime baseball fans enjoy looking back at those eras. Same thing with the market, There have been issues with free agency. Someday we’ll look back and say this was an interesting time in baseball."
Yelich's team is trying. The Brewers slashed their opening day payroll from $104 million in 2015 to $63 million in 2016 and 2017. When their young core exceeded projections by winning 85 games and making the postseason last year, their ultra-aggressive owner, Mark Attanasio, poured money back into the club.
The Brewers signed Lorenzo Cain, a World Series champion who finished third in MVP voting with the Royals in 2015, to a five-year, $80 million contract hours after acquiring Yelich for four prospects. "We built something those two years," Josh Hader, a lefty reliever and first-time All-Star, said. "It was just a bunch of young guys learning, but it was great to see them bring those guys in after what we showed them last year. It kind of showed their faith in us."
That model has offered hope to players such as Realmuto, whose ownership group chose to trade three of the top outfielders in baseball for a package of prospects, none of whom are contributing much in 2018: "Obviously it’s not my job to decide where the team is headed, but that’s the model that’s worked in the past for some," Realmuto said. "They kind of stay with that payroll, invest in the future and then add when guys develop. It’s worked a few times."
Owners have all the power, as Cole stated. Felipe Vazquez, less than one month after signing a four-year, $22 million extension, reported to Pirate City in Bradenton for spring training in February, only to make a troubling discovery.
"It was tough," Vazquez, the Pirates' only All-Star representative, said. "Cutch was like the guy in there. Always came out of nowhere with something crazy. ... He’d cheer everyone up in the clubhouse. Not seeing him, everyone was like sad or something. Like somebody died. Nobody died."
So, how did the clubhouse get resuscitated? Was it the February trade for Dickerson, an All-Star for the Rays last season? Vazquez said the credit goes to him playing music in the clubhouse. Whatever mojo his beats created helped the Pirates reach nine games over .500 and secure first place in the Central Division on May 17.
Then, most of their hitters regressed back to their career norms, while their young pitchers began to struggle, particularly the bullpen. The Pirates designated their setup man, George Kontos, for assignment by the end of the month and they were unable to replace the power lost with McCutchen's departure.
Despite the roster's shortcomings, they're nine games out of first at the All-Star break and 5 1/2 out of the second Wild Card spot with six teams to jump. With only 10 days until the trade deadline, they're running out of time to convince Huntington to keep the roster intact, thus continuing a cycle that began following the franchise's 98-win season in 2015.
"I’m sure the direction they decided to go was well thought out and had a purpose," Cole said. "Some things don’t work out. ... As far as how they go about their deal, that’s kind of out of my pay grade."
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