CEILING: Are Pittsburgh Pirates ALLOWED to Spend $110M? Inside Ownership’s CONTROL and Keller’s Deal

CEILING: Are Pittsburgh Pirates ALLOWED to Spend $110M? Inside Ownership’s CONTROL and Keller’s Deal

Today’s episode is all about your questions. From payroll rumors to why the pirates are suddenly in every headline and even how I approach podcasting compared to others in the market. Let’s dive into an AMA Friday. You are Locked On Pirates, your daily Pittsburgh Pirates podcast, part of the Locked On Network, your team every day. >> Welcome to Locked On Pirates, your daily podcast for all things Pittsburgh Pirates. I’m Gary Morgan, former editor at Steel City Pirates. I’ve been covering the team since sometime in the mid2010s and a lifelong fan. Shout out to all our everydayers. You guys are the heartbeat of this show. And don’t forget, the Everydayer Club launches in December. Today’s show is built entirely around your questions. We’ll tackle payroll reality, why the Pirates are in more rumors than ever, and my thoughts on podcasts, and the difference between fact and opinion. Let’s get started. Today’s episode is brought to you by Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account, and use code locked on MLB for $20 off your first purchase. So, the first AMA is, is the Pirates payroll really going to hit 110 million? I find it hard to believe, Gary. Hey, great question. Timely, too. Uh DK over at DK Pittsburgh Sports just put out a new report this morning, actually, about this. Um it this it’s been everywhere though. The truth is yes there is talk of $110 million ceiling but I wouldn’t call it a blank check. It’s why I keep going back to the realistic range is somewhere between 95 and 100 million. And even that depends on what I would think would take a pretty big shift in philosophy from ownership. I think it they would have to be convinced. Fact DK is reporting the structure as he understands it is very much so that the money is available. But Cherington would have to do some convincing. So right now the Pirates are projected at about 62 million based on existing contracts and arbitration. To get to 95 million they’d need to add roughly 33 million. somewhere around there up to it could be up to as high as 38 million maybe even 40 in spending. That is significant. It’s not impossible. And if you talk about moving on from Mitch Keller, well then you’re talking about another $16 million that you’d have to add in to get up to this figure that they’re talking about. I think a lot of the reason why this ceiling talk has increased is because there’s been a change in philosophy internally as to the willingness to move Mitch Keller. Now, I think they’re going to try to paint this as a competitive decision. Um, deciding not to spend that payroll or get rid of that payroll chunk to them. I think they’ll probably turn around and paint it almost like they did us a favor and signed a high price free agent. They will remind us how much they’re paying Mitch. And they’ll remind us that they made a conscious decision to not only sign him to that contract, but also to keep him here this year. In fact, I wouldn’t roll out them almost directly laughing in the faces of whoever asks them about it. Almost like, “Are you kidding? Of course, we’re going to keep Mitch Keller. I really don’t know where those reports came from. I think we’ll hear things like that. Um because they’re going to want to make this seem like a very intentional decision. And maybe it will be. Either way, I think knowing that that to even get to 95, which which would not get to that $und00 million mark this year, but would still outpace their spending last year, they’ve got some work to do to get there. and we’ve talked about several players that they could go out and attract. Now, the other thing that I I just want to point out here is this is this year’s budget and this is a big problem with the Pittsburgh Pirates and and this is where like you know how the expression the the fish stinks from the head. Well, this is where you can’t escape the realities of Bob Nutty. Couple couple of nuggets here that I I just think we as Pirates fans should be concerned about. one, if there really is a contingency built in where Bob Nutting andor Travis Williams, and those would be the only two people that could potentially outrank Ben Charrington as to wanting to pull the trigger on a deal, are the two people that are going to be in charge of listening to a pitch from Ben Sharington or whoever he designates to give the pitch about a deal they want to get time. So, two people who have absolutely no baseball experience whatsoever will have something to say about whether they should move forward with a deal or not. And according to DK’s reporting, this would involve them being convinced that it was actually going to be a needle mover of a deal. I’m not sure how they would distinguish that. You know, I I don’t I don’t know how they would know the difference. I don’t I don’t know. It can’t be based on their experience scouting players. They don’t do it. It can’t be them uh in the past getting involved in this sort of thing. They don’t do it. That’s not the pirate structure. So, I kind of go back to what I really think this is, guys. I I really think this is more about keeping the line of future blame open to pin it on somebody. And I I think the way they do that is we watched this play out last year. There was a claim made that Ben Cherington had money to spend and he chose not to spend it. meaning we as the fans are supposed to take it anyway as this guy put a team on the field that he thought could compete. He had more funds at his disposal. He had more ability to go get guys. We would have approved any wacky dreamed up trade he could have come up with and and he didn’t do it. So, I mean, he made a mistake and this was not a competitive team. he, you know, he screwed up and feels to me like they’re setting up to do the same thing. like we’re going to leak all this stuff that he could have spent up to 110 million and and when the the payroll comes in well south of 110 million we’ll get behind him and say that you know yeah this is the team he wanted to put on the field and yeah we still invested a decent amount of money and you know we weren’t looking for a dollar figure as much as we were looking for the right fit and we’ll hear all that stuff and they’ll support them. But if things turn south, if things go the way you and I probably would expect them to based on minimal expenditures from this ro from this team. Well, then all of a sudden, what’ll start coming back to the surface? Well, you he had another 15 million. You guys remember that report? You guys remember that back in November when we were telling reporters that we were considering 110? It It doesn’t mean he has to spend 110, of course, mind you, but but he can. It feels to me like it’s laying track so that you can turn around and blame him. You can blame him for not spending more because you were completely willing. So long as you’re able and willing to avoid that part, that critical nugget of information that Bob Nutting and Travis Williams also had to approve each individual deal. You’re supposed to forget that whenever it gets to the blame part, and we’ll see if you do. I’ll try to remind you. And then if it works, well, hey, you supported him all along. He’s so smart. He got it done even cheaper than you than you thought you were going to have to put out for it. It’s a win-win for Bob Nutting and Travis Williams. And the only win it doesn’t accomplish are the ones on the field. Right. Right. It’s a PR hurdle. I truly believe all the reporting here from from DK. I I’ve heard many of the same things. I’m not going to claim to have the same sources as him. I know I don’t. But I hear enough. I’m in the ballpark here. Means they’re all preaching from the same pulpit, which means everybody that leaks is leaking the same thing. You’ll see this report get shored up by some other people very shortly, I’m sure. And it’ll be the same outcome. It’s going to be the same exact thing. There’s going to be an amount of money out there. We’re all going to go out there and try to spend it on the free agent board like drunken sailors. But the last thing I just want to bring up here about the payroll in general, and I know this is a fact and I just need to back it up. This team budgets yeartoear. Their budget, according to my sources, just became official this week, right before Thanksgiving, actually. And it is in this range. They don’t have the budget for 2027 done. And they won’t because they’ll base it on what happens in 2026. And they don’t have the budget for 2028 either. And you want to know why they don’t sign multi-year contracts? Ding, ding, ding. That’s right. And that’s what they’re going to have to do. If you want to talk about trying to spend upwards of $33 million on the free agent market, I find it very hard to believe you’re going to do that by nickeling dimeming things. I don’t think you’re going to do that by signing. You don’t have the roster space to sign five or six guys for six or seven million dollars. You know what I mean? You’re gonna have to sign some guys that are going to require term. We’ve said this before, but if you’re even to reach the goal where you get to this imaginary dollar figure that feels like trying to you if you’re Bob Nutting, you know that low end that you can sell that you’ve tried. It’s going to require them pulling off a contract that they have not done before. That’s all I’m going to say. Before we jump into the next question, I just want to tell you it’s really going to focus heavily on why the Pirates are in so many of these rumors. I mean, can the league really be buying what the Pirates are selling? NFL season is back and honestly there’s nothing better than being in the stadium surrounded by fans cheering on your team together. Getting tickets though that can be a hassle. Twin cues login screens prices jumping at checkout apps checking you out of your login and you forget the password and Apple won’t recognize your face. Uh, that’s why I use Game Time, the app that gives advantage back to fans. Game time is fast, easy, and backed by Game Time guarantee. You’ll always get 100% authentic tickets delivered on time and at the best price. Plus, all fees are included, so the price you see is the price you pay. If you’ve got friends like I do, you can’t plan events in advance. You can’t say, “Hey, we’re all gonna get together on this date and go to this baseball game because little Johnny’s baseball game popped up or Tommy’s hockey game popped up or I got invited to golf over here.” Game time solves that because an hour or two before the game, you can call your buddies, blast out a text message to everybody, say, “Who wants in? I get the block of tickets right now. Head over to game time. You’re going to get them cheaper. You’re going to get them faster. and you’re going to be able to get them last minute. Download the Game Time app, create an account, and use code locked on MLB for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, that’s promo code locked on MLB for $20 off. Swipe, tap, ticket, go, download game time today. Hey, welcome back to Locked On Pirates. Locked on is the number one daily podcast network for sports fans and this show is your first listen for all things Pirates. If you’re new here, make sure you follow and subscribe so you never miss an episode. So, another great question here. Why are the Pirates linked to so many players this off season? And I love this one. First of all, there’s an awful lot of different ways that I can go here. And um it’s a it’s a relatively open-ended question, but it really gives me a a long leash to talk about. Um I’ll start here first because they legitimately do have money to spend. They do. And I think it’s clear they have to spend some of it and I think agents know that and other teams know that. And this sort of stuff is kind of hard to hide. You’re hearing it from some other uh teams that are in similar position too, such as the Marlins and the Rockies and and Baltimore even to a degree and Washington and some of the traditional lower spending teams are all being rumored as spenders this year. And there’s a dark side of this that I’ll touch on before I get into the more straightforward reason why I think the pirates are rumored so much. Number one, I believe that the national journalists like Jeff Passen and Ken Rosenthal and those types and I’m not pooping on them. So don’t don’t take it that way. I do a lot on this show, but I’m not doing that here. I do believe there is a little bit of an agenda at play here. Uh with the CBA approaching, I think there’s an understanding that kind of came to play that the the lower revenue teams don’t have an the the same capability as the big spending teams. And it was a reality that the Dodgers have really forced I and not just the Dodgers, Dodgers and Mets, other teams have have largely forced the national pundits to start to accept. They at least have to address it now, you know, and it at least has to be mentioned that it’s not 100% even. Well, heading into the CBA that they’re going to have to cover aggressively in favor of their agent friends and the players and whatnot. They’re trying to lay a little bit of track that there were opportunities and will and want there from players to go and sign with some of these lower I think you’re going to start seeing the story start to spin to not only are teams like the Pirates interested in Kyle Schwarber now. think you’re going to start to hear stories about players such as that having some reciprocal interest in some of these other teams. And before you get too carried away with any of these rumors, there’s just I want to just make sure you all understand something. And and I’m not going to say that all reporters don’t have any kind of knowledge here cuz they do. And I’m certainly not going to say that there aren’t leaks that you hear things about because there are and I hear them myself. I have a different set of people I talk to, but there are things that I hear and I report them to you as best I can, especially if I get them verified. But just by CBA rule, teams are not allowed to confirm or deny what they’re saying to players or how they even feel about a player. They can’t tell you like that they are interested in a certain particular free agent. They can’t tell you they’re not interested in a particular free agent because they’re not allowed to manipulate the market for a free agent. And any content there from any GM manipulates the market. Let’s say it’s uh somebody that you know is only going to go to one of those teams that can afford one of those gigantic contracts. Pete Alonzo, Kyle Schwarber, whatever. traditionally. Well, let’s say that, you know, the Los Angeles Dodgers are like, “Well, we don’t need a we don’t need a DH. You know, I’m sorry. We just don’t we’re not interested in Kyle Schwarber.” That may very well be true. That may very well be obvious, but they can’t do that because it manipulates the market. See, it shuts off an avenue. It shuts off a potential suitor for Kyle Schwarber. doesn’t mean that baseball GMs don’t talk and have a general idea of that in general, but just once it’s made public, it changes the dynamic of things. So, by rule in the CBA, that can’t be done. So, most of what you’re hearing, it’s always going to be rumor and innuendo, my friends, to a degree. There’s never going to be anything confirmed by three, four, five different people. Honest brokers are going to tell you when information changes that they’re getting. I try to do that. I’ve told you how my information changed on the potential deal with Josh Naylor in Seattle. Different ways that I think it kind of came to be as far as those rumors get generated. But these types of things are going to pop up because of this. Unlike past off seasons, too, the Pirates are being a little more proactive. I mean, they’ve contacted agents and teams to indicate levels of spending that they’re willing to consider. In the past, it’s been more about like, “Hey, we’re interested in these 10 guys. Let’s reach out to them.” They’re reaching out a little bit more proactively to agents. And that means like every time an agent’s got a player that falls into that range of being a possible fit for a team. Well, the Pirates are one of those teams that has gone out there and said like, “I’ve got the cashier check if you’ve got what I want.” So, you’re going to hear them linked to a lot of rumors. Whether the Pirates have ever directly talked about that player remains to be seen, but that’s where a lot of those rumors come from. It’s an agent going like, “Hey, we’re two weeks into free agency. I haven’t heard a damn word from anybody about blah blah blah. Let me call up Ken Rosenthal and tell him, um, these seven teams are interested because they all said they were willing to spend what I think it’s going to take to land my guy. Let’s throw that out there as a possible interest. And then fans read those reports and we go like, “BUT WE DON’T NEED A SECOND BASEMENT.” You get what I mean? and and we take it as gospel and and we start to fit them into the Jenga puzzle. It is our team or we propose backend trades that it’s going to cause because we’re creating a new situation or a depth issue somewhere or that player we were planning on isn’t important anymore. And that’s what all this stuff comes from. You’re going to hear a lot more rumors because the Pirates are legitimately out there with their pants down a bit. They don’t usually do that. They usually keep it close to the vest. The only person that knew they were interested in Tommy Fam was Tommy Fam’s agent and maybe Tommy himself. That does, you know, that’s that’s a different situation that I think they’re trying to go into this year. It seems like they really do want to add on some salary. Now again, that doesn’t mean they’re going to choose wisely. It doesn’t mean they’re going to fill the coffers. It doesn’t mean they’re going to use every available dollar. But the rumors are you I think the way that you can take them in best is if they’re rumored, there’s a good chance that they’re in whatever price zone that the Pirates have put out there to agents and other teams. And that mean that goes for a trade, that goes for a free agent. If you see the rumor, there’s a good chance that the Pirates are at least in the realm of possibility for doing it. But I would never take a whole lot of these initial reports as gospel, that they are for sure in contact or in active negotiations or even have an offer on the table. That should be a distinct different report. And if you get a report that there’s an actual offer on the table, know that even that did not come from our GM or the GM at the location where this offer supposedly was on the table. If it’s a free agent deal, there’s a good chance that that one could have slipped out from an agent. But there are a lot of GMs that would feel that that’s bad faith by any team that would allow something like that to slip and then they might cut off negotiations because they don’t want to play those kind of games. I can tell you there are some that have that kind of reputation out there. Brian Reynolds’s agent is one that does. Scott Boris, not so much. Scott Boris just gonna hold out and let people sweat until he gets a dollar figure he can live with. And if he doesn’t, he’s going to kick the can down the road, have him sign an option laden contract towards the end of spring training and go play somewhere for a year. I don’t think the Pirates can afford to be in that kind of a dance because they can’t risk not adding. So, they’re going to have to make some early additions and it’s going to force them out of their comfort zone again. Boy, that multi-year deal thing is really going to be such an important thing. This doesn’t mean again that they’re signing everyone. So, just keep your wits about you when you hear things, but the rumors I they’re real enough. They’re real for what they are. There is an interest there. There is a plausibility there. You can open your mind to it. But just realize it’s probably not gone as far as the report is making it sound like it’s gone. That’s probably the fairest way I can put it. And segment three, another really good AMA I’m going to try to talk to as best I can about like really the local podcasting scene here, especially for the Pirates. The NBA is back and there’s no better place to get in on the action than FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Even if you miss the start of the game or want to ride that hot hand, FanDuel has live bets on everything from who will score next to the fourth quarter big comeback. Plus, you can even combine your live bets into a same game parlay for a shot at a bigger payout. It keeps every game interesting, especially when your team’s making that late push. Right now, FanDuel is giving new customers $300 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. So, head to fandal.com and sign up and play your game with FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. All right. Hey, welcome back to Locked on Pirates. Before we get to our last question, let’s make sure that you’re following me on social media for Pirates Talk and behind the scenes content. You can find me on Twitter at Gary Mo00007, or you can just look me up, Gary Morgan on Facebook, uh Instagram, Pirates Fan Forum, uh Locked OnPirates on just about any platform, or of course you can just drop everything right here on YouTube. Thanks, guys. So, last AMA question. I’m not going to lie, this is a conglomeration. Um, one thing that you guys traditionally are very interested in are other shows that are going on in the market, the relationship between those other shows and this show. Uh, do I listen to them? How what do I think of some of the new ones? Your own opinions on some of the new ones. Yeah, I’m going to answer this as best I can. Uh, honestly, I just don’t listen very often. And it’s not really about my feelings toward anyone in particular. It’s kind of about originality in my own process. If I run a gauntlet of listening to five or six other shows before I sit down to talk to you, and maybe I could avoid it, but at best I feel like I’m going to end up giving you something you’ve already heard. And at worst, I’m going to accidentally plagiarize something. I have a really good memory and I’ll remember a phrase that I think is cool or or illustrates something really well and I’ll put it in my head and I’ll remember it and I’ll spit it out later on almost like I created it and I do that by accident. But if I listen to shows every single day, I’m gonna do it a lot and and that’s just not what I want to do. Um, another reason, I mean, the reason I started covering this team, as honestly as I can put it for you, is because I didn’t like the coverage that I had access to. I I think it is a disgrace what the fan does covering the Pirates. I I do. They’re the flagship of the team. Uh, it’s brutal. I like some of the new shows that they tried to put together for um you know Pittsburgh Sports Net like Fort’s done a good show and BR they’re just not terribly consistent with when they come out. Uh Hold My Cutter is okay with Greg Brown and and Fort they do a good job. Um, but they’re very guest dependent and you know, you’re not going to get a lot of like in-depth push back, but they’re real good for in the locker room stuff or just if you just like to hear stories of of guys from being around the game, those are always fun. Don’t listen to Northshore 9 a lot. Bluntly, they just put out so much content I can’t keep up. I’ll listen if they have an interesting guest on that I want to hear from. Um, but for the most part, I I mean, I’m just not interested in listening to their opinions. They plaster them all over the internet. I don’t really feel the need to listen to hear them. Um, if there’s any that are really controversial, I guarantee you I’ll get an AMA about it. I guarantee you, and it’ll be the next day. In fact, a lot of the time I find out what other podcasts are talking about from you. You guys ask me questions about the stuff and you tend to tell me where you heard it and I appreciate that. And you’ll note that like I tend to not ever tell you like, “Hey, that guy’s an idiot. Don’t listen to him.” Like that’s up to you to figure out. And I mean, if you like listening to somebody, you like listening to somebody. If you don’t, you don’t. Like I I listen to Bridge to Bucktober a lot. Uh I think it’s a great podcast. Josh does a different kind of show than me, him and his brother. And I like that. I obviously like Pirates Fan Forum on DK Pittsburgh Sports. That’s my other show. It’s good. Uh I like what I’m trying to do here with Locked On. You know, I I I think we’re building a good community here and I hope it grows into being your favorite show if it isn’t right now. I hope that I’m doing a good job and servicing the the needs of of the Pirates fans in the off season here and during the season. I hope I am. But I can tell you, um, I’m not doing anything other than what is interesting to me. If it’s interesting to me, I’m talking about it. The show is literally things that are interesting to me. Again, I started the show because I wasn’t happy with what was out there. And I I’m doing a show that fills a need that I personally felt was there. And the fact that I have as many of you listening every day as I do tells me there was a lot of you that share that opinion. And that’s all it is. I mean, if you’re somebody that like comes to my show set in your ways 100% on the type of content you want to hear, like if you want somebody that’s just gonna bash nutting 247, I mean, that’s I’m sorry. I’m not your show. If you want somebody that’s gonna read you stats and act like they’re gospel and can’t change because players never evolve, well, sorry, that’s not me, not your show. I want to give you guys both sides of everything. Listen to whatever shows you want. Ask me questions about them. I love it. Um, I again, I’m probably not going to dig into them very much. I would say the biggest happening in journalism and and I I would say journalism but at large but sports in general well co screwed us up big time. There used to be a a real separator between people that had actual access to the teams and people that were covering the teams by basically watching games on their couch and talking about what they saw. You know, some of us became a little more dangerous than that by developing our own like roll the decks of people that we talked to. So, we know some stuff. So, we probably crossed the line from opinionated talking heads into pseudojournalists here and there. I try not to. I have no desire to break news. There are things that I’m going to know 15 minutes before somebody else, but who cares, right? And when I do the show, I don’t really lean on that an awful lot. I’m doing an opinion show, but I haven’t painted myself as a journalist. And there’s a lot of people who are journalists. And journalists used to be just facts. They would come on and they would say, “The Pirates lost seven to eight today. So and so pitched, he didn’t do this well. So and so hit, he didn’t do this well.” Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. And then you see, you get the facts. Well, now CO kind of put us all on an even plane for a minute. And I think some journalists kind of have forgotten how to get back to what they did do, which was digging up facts and investigating and asking hard questions and digging in on storylines behind the scenes and and using their access that no one else had. Well, I think what they realized is an awful lot of the content creators out here are eating your lunch because we’re able to put out opinion-based content way faster. Notice I said faster, not more accurate all the time, right? Well, journalists have kind of camped on. Well, why not? Why can’t I have the opinion game? Whose opinion would be better than mine? I’m in the room. Of course, I know more than what’s going on, right? Well, sometimes that’s true, but I’m not looking for an opinion from a journalist most of the time, unless I’m asking them a question or they’re directly telling you, hey, this is not fact. This is my opinion. thing is some people look at that profession and they can’t separate it out even if they’re directly told there’s going to be an opinion here from a journalist because they still see it as fact because it’s coming from whatever Walter Kronhite would be today to them listen to whatever you like just make sure you listen here too okay that’s it for today’s AMA Friday actually you know Plus, if they didn’t confuse you, what would you ask me questions about? I love this guy. >> Um, make sure you follow me on social media for more Pirates Talk. And don’t forget the Everyday Club launches in December. We’re serious about Pirates baseball because, well, somebody has to be. Let’s go Bucks.

Pittsburgh Pirates stir up offseason drama as payroll rumors hit $110 million—will ownership finally loosen the purse strings? Gary Morgan tackles the reality behind Pirate payroll buzz, the evolving stance on Mitch Keller, and how shifting philosophy in the front office might reshape the club’s spending. Can fans expect big free agent signings, or is blame-shifting still business as usual in Pittsburgh?

Why are the Pirates suddenly in every hot stove headline? Gary Morgan discusses the team’s active role in trade rumors, CBA impacts, and how agents and national reporters fuel the hype. Plus, get behind-the-scenes insight on the local podcasting landscape, balancing fact vs. opinion, and what truly sets Pirates coverage apart. Will the Pirates break tradition with multi-year deals, or stick to their cautious script? Buckle up for candid analysis and big questions as the Bucs enter a pivotal winter.

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Pittsburgh Pirates stir up offseason drama as payroll rumors hit $110 million—will ownership finally loosen the purse strings? Gary Morgan tackles the reality behind Pirate payroll buzz, the evolving stance on Mitch Keller, and how shifting philosophy in the front office might reshape the club’s spending. Can fans expect big free agent signings, or is blame-shifting still business as usual in Pittsburgh?

Why are the Pirates suddenly in every hot stove headline? Gary Morgan discusses the team’s active role in trade rumors, CBA impacts, and how agents and national reporters fuel the hype. Plus, get behind-the-scenes insight on the local podcasting landscape, balancing fact vs. opinion, and what truly sets Pirates coverage apart. Will the Pirates break tradition with multi-year deals, or stick to their cautious script? Buckle up for candid analysis and big questions as the Bucs enter a pivotal winter.