Hey everyone! Like the post says, my name is Alex Stumpf, and I am entering my seventh year covering the Pirates. I'll be answering your questions this weekend, and then hopefully more in the future.

If I can self-plug, you can subscribe to my Pirates Beat newsletter here: https://www.mlb.com/fans/newsletters/beat-reporter

Some questions and answers will be used for an article for MLB.com.

What's on your mind?

21 comments

  1. Do you have any leads on what excuses the pirates front office will use when we fail to sign any high level free agents this year?

  4. Hi Alex, hope your last seven years covering our beloved minor league club has been fun. I’ve been following the team for 32 years and in this time they didn’t win one playoff series. I follow many professional sports franchises and the Pirates might be the only team the doesn’t value winning as their prime goal.

    My question is did you choose to cover the Pirates or were you assigned to cover the Pirates? If you chose to cover the Pirates, why are you so masochistic?

  7. Has the Cherington regime ever laid out a long-term plan? Does the plan differ from the plan under the Huntington era? Do the differences arise from philosophy, or just from changing circumstances (e.g., restrictions on draft and international spending)?

    If Cherington were to leave the organization in mid-season, who would take over?

    Edit: do you know anything about the team’s risk analysis with respect to term of player contracts? Does their algorithm just say “No” to any free agent contract over two years for a position player and three years for a pitcher?

  10. hey, alex! thanks for doing this. my question is:

    how complicit would you say you are in the cycle of pirates fan misery?

    there’s clearly a disconnect between the words spoken by the organization and the results on the field. does any part of you feel like, if it weren’t for a fear of self-preservation, you would hold them more accountable to not give you the same regurgitated nonsense answers about urgency and a commitment to winning that they’ve been feeding reporters, who then mama-bird it to the fans, for 30+ years?

    we’re all doing what we need to do to get by. this isn’t a judgement. i’m just curious if it ever crosses your mind.

  11. There were conflicting reports on the Pirates interest in Josh Naylor. What is your perspective on this and any other free agency conversations so far this offseason?

  13. Hey Alex, Ive been following your work for a while, we have similar thoughts about the Pirates. I appreciate your hard work and dedication.

    I have 2 questions

    1. Are the Pirates saying they are going to spend this year related to the upcoming push for a salary cap system in/after 2027, or is this more of a “we have a Skenes”?

    2. Will there be any baseball played in 2027?

    Thanks.

  14. A recent MLBTR poll asked fans about potential Pirates spending this offseason, with 52% of respondents voting Pirates won’t sign a free agent over $39m. What is your perspective of the front office’s potential spending flexibility and desire to make a larger free agent spend?

    Poll: Will The Pirates Make A Splash In Free Agency? – MLB Trade Rumors https://share.google/o348XJ80Oe55WgB4k

  15. I understand that the organization is consistently concerned about revenue. My question concerns alternate revenue sources.

    I noticed that the Dodgers have had a crossover promotion with a Japanese company that involved One Piece characters – an IP that famously centers on pirates. Has our front office ever explored crossover marketing opportunities such as One Piece, Pirates of the Caribbean, Peter Pan, etc…?

  16. Pirates currently have significant depth at SP: Skenes, Jones, Chandler, Keller, Oviedo, Burrow, Ashcraft and the guys on the fringe of being called up ( Harrington and Barco)

    Outside of Keller, who is the most likely to be dealt for an impactful bat? Could we see Jones, if medically cleared, be dealt in a deal similar to what was reported two years ago ( Jackson Holliday for Jared Jones)?

  17. Has ownership and everyone who enables their systemic demolition of a once proud franchise indicated how they’re able to sleep at night?

  18. Alex – Does the Pirates Organization deserve the scorn and reputation of being cheap, or is it just baseball economics that makes it seem that way?

  19. What’s the trade value of Keller?

    Is Reynolds over the hill?

    How do you pick your iconoclastic haircuts?

    Thanks! I really like the Moneyball show

  20. So the inexplicable decision (for a team like the pirates with unreasonably tight financial constraints) to retain Jack and Ramirez adds a couple million but generally speaking…

    If the pirates traded keller and opted to go with a rotation of Skenes, chandler, Oviedo, jones, burrows, Ashcraft, barco, Harrington, their 26 man payroll would be about $40M. Why is the best case scenario seen as landing one middle-high end FA? The pirates could sign 2 or 3 ELITE free agents earning 20 or 30M per year, immediately become a legit contender, AND get local goodwill/ticket sales with national publicity because it is so out of character. They could do all of this while keeping their opening day payroll below $100M.

    What is keeping the pirates from pursuing a strategy like this? I know they are chea…errr…financially limited, but they could pull this off and still have a payroll in the bottom 5 of the league.

  21. I read that Nutting traded his Thanksgiving turkey for an embryo & a baster, why should I have confidence he’ll spend money on payroll this year?

Leave a Reply