DK’s Daily Shot of Pirates: Still doubt the spending?

DK’s Daily Shot of Pirates: Still doubt the spending?

[Music] [Applause] There’s definitely one bad thing, really bad thing about showing everybody what’s in your bank account right before a major purchase presumably. Good morning to you. Good Thursday morning. I’m Dan Kajovich of DK Pittsburgh Sports. This is Daily Shot of Pirates presented by our friends at the Northshore Tavern. It comes your way bright and early Monday through Thursday in the off season. If you’re into football andor hockey, I also offer daily shots of Steelers and Penguins in the same place that you found this. The Major League Baseball winter meetings came and went, closing yesterday, as they always do with the rule five draft. The Pirates did make a rule five pick, selecting pitcher Carter Balumler and then immediately trading Balumler to the Rangers for a 20-year-old prospect Jer Garcia. There are minor acquisitions and then there’s stuff like this that were expected or at least somewhat hoped for major acquisitions to have been made at these meetings. Alas, all that came from those three days was a relief pitcher lefty Gregory Sto one year at 7.75 million. Before that, to be fair, the Pirates did pick up Justin Garcia, an outfield prospect as part of a fiveplayer trade that sent Johan Oedo to the Red Sox. But let’s get real here. If you didn’t add to the offense and Garcia is still going to be a AAA guy by every accounting, certainly to open the 2026 season, then everybody’s still kind of waiting and wondering and possibly worrying. See, here’s the deal. Until there is a deal, at least from the public perception standpoint, I don’t think anybody’s going to buy anything that anyone has to report. And what stands out the most on that front by a mile is the offer that was made by the Pirates to Kyle Schwarber that’s been reported. And I’ve seen now three different figures for this. Four years in 100, four years and 120. I’ve even seen 4 years and 125. Joseé Negron, our beat reporter on the scene in Orlando, Florida all week, also had that figure in the 120 range. And it really wouldn’t have mattered who reported it or how many reported it because there probably still isn’t a soul in Pittsburgh baseball fandom who believes it. And I get that. I wouldn’t either. And the precedent to support you only goes back to, oh, you know, the beginning of time. Jose asked Ben Sherington yesterday how he was feeling about this particular endeavor without having obviously added a hitter to date. Confident that we’re going to land some things that help our position player group, help our team generally. I don’t know if that’ll happen today or tomorrow. Uh, but I think we have more information every day and it’s more clear and and the market is starting to move and you’re seeing some stuff start to fall and that means other things will start to happen. So, we just need to be ready and in position to say yes on the things that make the most sense to us and uh I’m confident we’ll figure that out. So Cherington used the word confident there twice, which whether this happens or not, we’d have to agree, it continues to put the pirates in a place where they’d better spend this. Now, that’s not to suggest that they need to go spending 120 or 125 or even 100 on a given player if there isn’t any such player. And between Schwarber returning to the Phillies and Pete Alonso moving on to the Orioles just yesterday for 5 years and $155 million. Same term, $5 million more than Schwarber. It kind of gives you the sense that there’s not going to be a whole lot more of that. The Orioles, if you don’t know this, also were in on Schwarber, but they were really in on Schwarber. They offered the same figure that the Phillies did. They really wanted to boost their offense. Then they go out and sign Alonzo the very next day with a cherry on top and they get it done. They wanted power. They got power. So, what do you do if you’re the Pirates? Do you wait to see more of how things shake down? Do you get aggressive like the Orioles did? Which do you value more? Making a great deal or just getting the player that you want? I don’t have to wonder about stuff like this with Cherington. Heck, you even heard it there in that sound bite. He’s looking for things that make sense for us. What the Phillies and the Orioles did to get their deals done was to add on a fifth year. I want to make that perfectly clear. The Pirates known offer to Schwarber was the same as what he ended up getting, but they wouldn’t add on a fifth year. Now, stop and process that for at least a split second because this general manager is not going to be around 5 years from now. I mean, let’s just call it like it is. He shouldn’t be around 5 days from now. He shouldn’t have been around 5 months ago. But either he or ownership said nah, no fifth year rather than just getting the player. So what I’m expecting moving forward and for the remainder of the off season is yes, they’re going to spend money. They have it to spend. It’s real. And it’s not because of a payroll increase. It’s because of the payroll decrease since the middle of last season. something that almost everybody seems to be forgetting in these conversations that I pick up that appears to be the primary source of skepticism. They’ll never raise payroll enough to pay guys like they’re not raising payroll. They traded Krian Hayes. They traded David Bednar. They traded Bailey Falter. They moved other pieces and are allowing others to just walk away so that they have this estimated 25 million or so just to get back to where payroll was this past season. That’s not an applause achievement. As such, no, I don’t doubt that they’re going to spend this money. I also don’t doubt that they’re going to add a bat or two. Might not be through free agency. It can be through trades. They certainly have pitching and pitching prospects to give, but I could see it playing out in more of a peacemeal way, which is fine as long as it’s understood by all concerned that they’ve now shown to everybody willingly or not. And I’m going to continue to tell you that the only reason that stuff like this offer and everything else got out is because the agent put it out because that’s how it works. but it got out and they didn’t exactly deny it. One can only hope that when the money does get spent, it’ll be spent better than putting $7.75 million into a lefty non-closer reliever. Could have just kept Falter for that and, you know, could have gotten some starts out of him if needed in an emergency as well. When we come back, J1Q, [Music] if you’re looking for a great dining experience, look no further than Northshore Tavern. Located directly across Federal Street from PNC Park, next door to Mike’s Beer Bar, Northshore Tavern is Pittsburgh’s home for Steak on a Stone. Enjoy your steak finished on a hot lava stone in front of you, where you ensure each piece is cooked to exactly your liking. or try their rotating selection of entre, hot sandwiches, salads, and burgers, all while enjoying the ambiance dedicated to the great players and history of the Pittsburgh Pirates all around you. Come see why everyone’s talking about Northshore Tavern and Steak on a Stone. It’s Gun Storage Check Week. Help prevent unwanted access to your firearms. No one wants their unsecured gun to be used in an accident, a suicide, or a crime. Use lock boxes, safes, and locks to secure your firearms. Learn more at gunstorage check.org. That’s gunstoch check.org. Brought to you by NSSF, the Firearm Industry Trade Association. [Music] Today’s J1Q comes from Bagio who who asks, “Wouldn’t you rather have David Bednar for $9 million?” Well, yeah. And it’s not really something I’d considered until you brought it up. But the reason that Bednar is gone, the transparent reason that Bednar is gone is that he’s headed to arbitration. Those who study this sort of thing for a living are forecasting that the Yankees will end up having to pay Bedar $9 million. This is his third and final season of arbitration. After that, he’d become a free agent. And yes, of course, I’d rather have a closer. I’d rather have someone with the pedigree, not to mention everything else that Betnark brings. You don’t need to hear it from me, than paying 7.75 million to a lefty who’s not going to be a closer, hasn’t been one since 2022. And really upon further review and research and to be candid here reading your stuff that you’ve sent my way, I’m really increasingly leerary of this whole thing. I mentioned on the program yesterday that Sto’s whip for the season, that’s walks and hits per inning pitched, was 1.425. That’s not good. I also mentioned that it was marketkedly higher later in the year after he went to New York. But Bob points out here, man, I hadn’t even thought of this statistically. I didn’t realize that whip didn’t include hit batsmen. I’m not sure why it doesn’t. There can only be one individual on the diamond responsible for a hit batsman, and that would be the person hitting the batsmen. Soto hit 11 guys in 2025. So Bob does the math for us and says that if those hit batsmen had been recorded as walks, his whip would have been 1.608 for the whole year. That’s that’s almost two base runners per inning. Show me the reliever who gets away with putting two base runners on per inning. What’s more, Sto’s career whip is 1.425. And as my friend Prestige wrote my way here, of all of the Pirates relief pitchers who made at least 10 appearances this past season, that figure 1.425 425 was better than only that of Johan Ramirez, Tanner Rainey, and Colin Holderman. And look, I’ll reiterate what I said yesterday. I think Sto can be fine. I think that durability counts for a lot, and he has taken the ball consistently wherever he’s been, and he did it again this past season with 70 appearances. That has real value. What I question here, and I feel like this is fair and not just picking on the GM that I’m calling to have fired every day, is could you really afford to take $7.75 million of the money that you’ve been allotted and the money that you know needs to go into hitting because you don’t have just one hole. Even if you had somehow magically gotten Kyle Schwarber or Pete Alonso, you still wouldn’t have had just one hole. Could you afford to give away whatever it is, a third or a quarter of what’s basically your allowance to really just a run-of-the-mill lefty reliever? Or could you have just kept Bednar? I appreciate the question. And I appreciate everybody who listens to Daily Shot of Pirates. A reminder that this time of year the show goes 4 days a week. So we’ll be back with another one Monday. Unless of course they sign some bazillion dollar mega bat, in which case we might just have to hop on and talk about it a little bit more. Otherwise, thank you again and see you Monday. [Music]

Still doubt the spending to come this offseason? That’s fair, but …

#Pittsburgh #Pirates #LetsGoBucs #MLB #DKPS

Hear award-winning columnist Dejan Kovacevic’s Daily Shot of Pirates every weekday morning!

SUBSCRIBE TO CHANNEL ► https://www.youtube.com/@DKPS_Pirates?sub_confirmation=1

MEMBERSHIP TO CHANNEL ► https://www.youtube.com/@DKPS_Pirates/join

OUR APPS ► https://DKPS.net/apple | https://DKPS.net/android

OUR WEBSITE ► http://www.DKPittsburghSports.com

ABOUT US ► DK Pittsburgh Sports is the proud, pioneering, fully independent venture begun in 2014 by award-winning reporter Dejan Kovacevic and featuring a professional staff covering the Pirates year-round and everywhere they go! This is where it all started!