HIDE & SEEK: Why the Pittsburgh Pirates WON’T Add Position Talent from Rule 5 Draft – Real TALK

HIDE & SEEK: Why the Pittsburgh Pirates WON’T Add Position Talent from Rule 5 Draft – Real TALK

fans keep asking me about the Pirates and the Rule Five draft. Let me save you some time. This team isn’t built for it, and I’ll tell you why. Plus, MLB just made streaming history, and it could change the game forever. Let’s talk about it. You are Locked On Pirates, your daily Pittsburgh Pirates podcast, part of the Locked On Network, your team every day. Welcome back to Locked On Pirates, the daily podcast for all you everydayers out there. I’m Gary Morgan, lifelong fam, former editor at steelcitypirates.com. I’ve been covering this team since 2019 and I think I have some standing as to understanding the direction this team tends to head. It should be fun for us to discuss some of these topics today. Today we’re going to break down why the Pirates probably won’t touch the role five draft, especially for position players and what MLB’s new streaming deals mean for the future of the sport. also going to touch on some really great AMAs we’re going to get to in the last segment today that are going to touch back on some of these other things that shook loose from the rule five protections that took place yesterday. And don’t forget that every day club is coming up here in December. I’m going to give you a lot more details on that real soon. Before we get started though, today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. Download the app today. Let’s start with the rule five draft because I know this is the question blowing up my inbox right now. Um, a quick history of the rule five just to kind of make sure everybody understands how it came to be and what it’s meant for, why we go through this exercise every year. like why are we just giving away our players in the first place, right? That’s the first question that I get usually it tends to be from people that don’t watch a whole lot of baseball at least they don’t pay attention to these backend processes and I have infected some of you and drug you along into this show and now you’re forced to listen to stuff in the offseason that you hadn’t paid attention to in the past and I’m getting questions about stuff like this. Um, this started all the way back in 1892. It started as the selection of players for NL teams and then when they combined in 1903, it continued. Um, post 1950, it was designed to prevent hoarding talent in farm systems. You had a lot of teams that were that had a lot more money to sign free agents and just post them up in the minor leagues. I mean, their their major leagues would be stacked and they’d have, you know, a duplication of efforts in the in the minors. Uh, major league players playing in the minors, basically. In the modern era, players are eligible after four or five seasons based on their signing age. So that’s why sometimes you see like a a 22y old on this list and it’s because they were probably signed when they were 16 out of some uh you know predominantly South American country and they’ve reached this point where the team has to make a decision. And the problem that a lot of teams run into, especially with those kids, is they get them started in the lower levels and sometimes they’re just hitting single A by the time you’re getting to the point where you have to make this decision. It’s why players like Edward Florentino are so interesting because he’s broken through and gotten to Bradenton younger, which means the Pirates have an extra year or so to get him advanced enough that it makes sense to put him on the 40man. It’s hard to put somebody on the 40man that hasn’t gotten past the double A level. It just it it creates issues and and it causes problems as far as like when you’re going to advance them. Even what the Pirates did yesterday with Jack Branigan, it’s cool that they did that. And I think he’s a talent that will survive in Triple A. And I think he eventually will get to the majors. I I’m not saying he’s going to be a star or anything. There’s talent there, but he’s probably realistically based on where he is developmentwise really and truly a year out from the Pirates actually wanting him on their 40man. So, the rule five kind of forces you into some decisions and that’s all. So, why the Pirates won’t pick a position player? I mean, look at Alexander Canario, okay? He wasn’t a role five draft LA pick last year, but they treated him exactly like one. Hidden all year long basically on the bench. Had no options. They couldn’t move him off the roster unless they wanted to lose him. The Pirates basically stashed him. Now, you can look at this roster and you can look at this lineup and and if you’re as jaded as many of your comments tell me you are, then you’re probably thinking, “Well, so what? We need guys that can do X, Y, and Z. This is a free way to get talent essentially. Let’s do it. Well, you I I don’t think that you can do that and sell um real effort to improve at the same time because a role five player by nature is going to be at least so questionable that their team that has spent four or five seasons putting work into them didn’t think that there was any fruit there. Didn’t think that anything was going to come out of bringing them up this year. They didn’t think it was going to happen for them. Now, sometimes this will happen on a team that’s loaded with talent and guys will shake free. Sure. And every once in a while you get a success story about a player like this like Akil Badu up in Detroit. But I mean, look at what’s happened to Akil Badu since, right? Back in being a borderline major league, minor league player, Detroit’s gotten better. So, he hasn’t. You know, he what was exciting and worked out pretty well for a team that needed some talent is not likely to work out all the time. This is just not where you tend to find gold. Okay? Every once in a while you will. And when the Pirates were in the depths of their rebuild, I’m not saying it worked out because it certainly didn’t. But that that’s why they took swings at guys like Kai Tom, you know, not to not to bring up, you know, terrible memories for you, but th those types of swings on offensive talent, they’re okay when you’re in a full rebuild. Well, listen. No matter what you feel, no matter what you think, that’s not the mode this team can be in. They don’t have that kind of space. And you’re not going to bring anybody in off the role five draft to be a starting position player for you. It just isn’t going to happen. And think about how long it would take to get to the point where you felt like you were no longer hiding an offensive player. Like you’d need some stuff to happen. Anybody that truly has the talent to jump from double A to the majors has probably been protected. That’s just realistic. That said, I’ve got a couple names for you to look at because if the Pirates do decide that they want to add somebody from the roll five, there’s a good chance that it’s going to be a reliever. So, I just want to bring up a couple names that I thought were good. Now, why a reliever before I get into it? Why is a reliever somebody that is more likely than a position player? Well, for one thing, the reliever is a lot easier to hide. It’s a lot easier to have a guy that you only are going to trust in the fourth, fifth, or sixth innings, and they’re going to be used for mopup duty. They’re basically a guy that, yeah, you hope they get better, but you’re okay with dealing with the ups and downs of it, just to see if you can win yourself some free talent. Harrison Cohen from the Yankees. Uh 26-y old right-handed pitcher. He has a nasty slider and a cutter. A 176 erra in double A and AAA last year. I think this is a real candidate. Whether he comes to the Pirates or not is kind of irrelevant. These are just guys that I think will get taken. Harrison Cohen, I was actually kind of surprised the Yankees didn’t protect. Jake Miller from the Tigers, left-handed pitcher, had a breakout really in 2024. Uh, and he had some AFL success. Problem is, a lot of injuries there, but if the Pirates are going to take a swing, again, it’s going to be a reliever. And I would think preferentially it would be a lefty reliever. Um, that wouldn’t be a lot different than claiming a guy off waiverss that doesn’t have any options or whatnot. And I guess maybe we put a little bit too much risk on what happens. Like if you fail with the role five, um it’s really more of a punishment for the role five player than it is the team. If you select a role five player and it doesn’t work out, well, you just, you know, you you you let them go. You basically have to wave them. Then the entire league gets a chance to to take a crack at them and pick them up under the same role five conditions that you had. And if nobody does, then you as the team that picked him up off roll five have to offer him back to his original team. And that’s that’s where this sort of talent tends to trickle away. Doesn’t work very often. The intended use of the rule five was to continue to not allow talent to get hoarded around the league. I’m not 100% sure that it’s worked as intended. And as a matter of fact, I think it actually creates false situations sometimes for players and and hurts their careers. Like we just discussed like what happens to that 16-year-old kid that gets that gets signed and, you know, he hasn’t even hit single A before people are talking about, you know, whether he should be protected on the role five or not. At that level, it doesn’t matter much. It’s more the borderline guys that like maybe just got to double A last year and were really impressive. Now you’re putting them on the 40man probably a year early and forcing the issue and if it doesn’t work out quickly, you get frustrated. You move on. You you DFA them to make room. It kind of hinders careers. I think sometimes it can’t accelerate it. The system is messy. Truthfully, the Pirates already protected similar arms to what I just suggested, too. If they play in the role five, it’ll be a minor league phase, I would think. Now, while the Pirates are staying quiet on roll five, MLB is making noise in another area, streaming. And folks, this is going to be a big deal. 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. Hey, welcome back to Lockdown Pirates. Before we dive back in here, just a quick reminder, Locked On is the number one daily podcast network for sports fans, and that’s because of you, our listeners. We appreciate every single one of you for making us your go-to source for Pirates Talk. Um, you Everydayers, I can’t even express my appreciation enough. You’re great. You’re great. appreciate you making me your first listen every day, especially since I’ve had to move the times around so much recently. So, MLB has signed threeyear deals with Netflix, ESPN, and NBC Universal. So, Netflix will have opening night home run derby World Baseball Classic in Japan. Um, ESPN is going to have MLB TV rights starting in 2026. NBC Universal will have Sunday Night Baseball. Um, they haven’t had that in 25 years. That’s going to be kind of different actually being on network. Uh, Apple TV keeps Friday Night Baseball, which I’m I don’t know about you guys, but I’m not going to enjoy. I didn’t like it very much on Apple TV. I didn’t think they did a great job. Fox Sports uh still has the World Series. This isn’t just about convenience for fans as far as access goes. This is really, whether they’ve stated it or not, an important step that had to take place in order to move things forward for this CBA. You got to start leveling the playing field and you got to have a mechanism to do that. The biggest discrepancy in all of baseball as far as spending goes really and truly and somebody actually asked me a question. I didn’t want to make this an AMA because I was going to talk about this topic anyway, but a listener asked me um you know what kind of cable money a team like the Pirates gets now. And the best answer I can give you is there’s no 100% truthful reported answer. Best I can do is give you the guesstimates of other people that have reported it throughout the years. And I can tell you they were getting about 50 million before the cable crash when AT&T Sports Net went down and turned into Pittsburgh Sports Net, which is owned by the FSN network that owns the Penguins and you know, so we have like the the Fenway Sports if if you don’t know who that is. So, we we kind of share with the the Red Sox a little bit of uh TV rights and everything, but the Pirates are partial owners in this. That was part of the deal that was negotiated. And they have a a much worse deal than they had previously for TV. I I’ve heard it reported that it’s around 25 million. So, it’s cut in half from what they were getting, which is down from what they were getting when it was root sports. The cable TV model has been dying for quite some time and there’s several teams that are just so well part of what Manfred was holding on to tightly and shopping widely was the MLB TV rights that it’s something that he’s held dearly. And they’ve taken over the the streaming rights for several baseball teams, too. If you’ll remember correctly, the Pirates, that was one of the options they could have gone. They could have taken the uh being broadcast by MLB path. They would have had a little bit of compensation, probably a little bit less than they’re getting now in their current deal. Pirates went with this where they have partial ownership. They can pull out of it whenever they want. In other words, now that Rob has established this MLB TV rights with ESPN, I don’t know how lucrative it’s going to be for all the individual teams. That stuff will be um figured out in the future. But the Pirates have a backout ability from their cable package. So if something were to come up in the CBA where MLB wants all teams to be, you know, underneath this MLB TV umbrella, which would take some doing, it would. And there’s some contracts for TV that I don’t see them being able to get out of. So I don’t know how they would be able to sell exclusive rights. I don’t have to. I’m not a lawyer. I don’t have to figure it out. I understand the problem. That doesn’t mean I have to know the solution. I think uh at some point though this had to happen. There had to be some kind of a consolidation of their major streaming partners and they were using ESPN as a regional partner which worked out kind of well but it it could never be even until everything was brought into this umbrella. No matter what, Rob Manfred was looking for a single source seller. They didn’t want to break this up into things. And I don’t think Major League Baseball really wanted to continue to hold their own rights and try to have their own programming 100% of the time. I I think ESPN will do that better. That said, ESPN has done this sort of thing for hockey. I’m a big hockey fan. I don’t like it. I mean, I don’t like the way they’ve done it, and I don’t think they’ve done a good job with it. It doesn’t mean that I think they’ll screw up Major League Baseball. It doesn’t mean that I don’t that I think you’re not going to be able to watch your favorite team, whichever one that is. It’s hard for me to tell sometimes reading the comments, to be honest with you guys. Some of you, I think, don’t like the Pirates at all. But, uh, I I I think this is a necessary step. There will be more that comes out about this as more details leak. And by leak, I mean this is just an agreement. Wait until they start really hammering out the details. And when they do, I think you’ll start finding some poison pills and red herrings and little things that others will start to understand what’s being laid out. There’s a foundation that’s being built here. And it’s a stepped approach. It’s not going to be something any changes that they make to the financial system or the the streaming packages or any kind of distribution model for Major League Baseball is going to be at least a little bit subservient to time and how things adjust and CBA negotiations. All of this is baked in. And again, in order to get the revenue streaming the right way, the revenue sharing that has to happen, the streaming has got to be something that everybody can get on board with. As far as I understand, this could come with finally eliminating the blackout rule. Um, I don’t know that they’ll actually do that, but I’ve heard from ESPN, at least when they were negotiating this last year before they pulled out, which was a whole other drama piece to this thing. When they were negotiating this last year, that was a big sticking point that they wanted to make sure that the blackout rule could go away. and Rob Manfred was to talk to his ownership group to see if he could get them to kind of back off on their feelings on that. And I would imagine he’s made some progress because it was kind of, as far as I understand, a a place that ESPN wouldn’t even continue talking until that was gone. Nobody wants to be blamed for for what has been a really terrible policy for MLB. And I can tell you they took it away in hockey which is great. That is the best thing that has happened from it. You can watch any game from anywhere and it and you don’t lose anything. Again though, this is not about convenience at all. It is about leveling the playing field. They can say whatever they like, but at the end of the day, that’s why this is happening. That and I I don’t think an act of God could have stopped the cable model from crashing. I mean, think about your own situation. How many friends do you have that come up to you on a weekly basis and and announce that they’ve cut the cord, right? Well, that’s all kind of part of this. It’s a push toward universal streaming. It is key for any future salary cap, even discussing it. It levels the TV money a little bit. It equals out revenue sharing via the streaming package. Commissioner Manford calls it expanding reach, but it’s really about evening the playing ground for revenue. It really is. It will expand reach, too, though. Not that you couldn’t get MLB.tv from anywhere. You could, but ESPN’s got a little more reach as far as being on cable networks in countries where the cable model is not dying quite yet because they didn’t try to like, you know, extort the American people for tons and tons of money without new services. You know, there aren’t as many people cutting the cord elsewhere. Just saying. Let’s talk let’s bring back um a little bit of of fun to this show because I know streaming is kind of a boring subject for some of you. I personally think it’s super important because of what’s coming this year and I’m fascinated by how it plays out. But we’re going to do some AMAs because these are some really interesting questions this time too. Let’s get into them. Hey, welcome back to Locked on Pirates. Before we jump into these great questions, let’s make sure you’re following me on socials. Check me out on on Twitter or X or whatever the hell we’re calling it today at Gary Mo 20007. Pirates fan forum, locked on pirates. You can find me on Insta, Facebook, anywhere. Anywhere. Just look. Search my name on on Google with pirates next to it and you’ll find about a thousand ways to get a hold of me. just do it however you like. So, let’s do some listener questions. I think these are great. Uh, this is about yesterday’s show. I appreciate the breakdown, but I think the two most important investments are right here at home. 10 years, 100 million for Griffin and 10 years, 400 million for skins. Mutual option after five, opt out after seven. 20 million a year, first five, 60 million last five. Am I crazy? Well, you might be. Um, I don’t think you’re crazy at all for the Griffin one. Uh, in fact, if anything, I think you’ve probably overpaid a bit. I think you could probably get that done for 85 or so. Uh, and I’m just taking into account the three rookie year deals, um, where, you know, he’s only going to make 700 and some K. you could easily easily offer him two or three million in those years and and it would be a fair deal and you know or you could split it evenly and pay him exorbitantly early and late however you’d like to do it but I think there’s there’s room to get that number below 100 uh even for him now 400 million for skins uh I don’t think you even get the conversation started frankly uh I think he’s at least the $500 million player when he signs. Um, mutual option after five. So, mutual option after five, opt out after seven. Okay. So, basically, you’re buying until the end of the decade for Pirates fans to go, I know Paul Skins is my pitcher. you already have that through 2027 cheaper than what you’ve just described. So, what where I’m trying to say to you, because I want I want you to figure this out yourself. I’ll I’ll try to button it together, but here’s how I’m coming to that determination. You’re basically asking me or the Pirates to pay Paul Skins way more than they’re going to have to based on arbitration and what’s owed to him via his rookie deal for the rest of the decade and then he can leave if he wants. That’s basically what’s going to happen. So you’re asking them to pay a lot more for the same amount of years. The reason that there’s an interest in extending Paul schemes is because you want to buy out some of those years of arbitration. If you’re not going to hand the fans a couple extra guaranteed years of having the best pitcher in baseball, this is a pointless exercise. Just take them through arbitration and pay whatever baseball makes you pay. you don’t have the injury risk, you don’t have the salary on the books, you there’s so many reasons why you as a as an owner wouldn’t do that. Now, if you can lock him up through 2032 and and there the options start after that, okay, then I think you you might have a shot. So, do you want to talk about whether the Pirates would actually do that? I mean, I’d need to see it before I’d believe that. I know they’re they want to talk to Paul and I know that, you know, we just had reported at the end of last year that that dialogue hadn’t started. That probably tells you just about all you need to know about where they are with this. I think they probably need CBA help, frankly, to take a step like that. Connor Griffin’s very realistic, though. That could be done. That could be that could absolutely be done. And I think they could do it really anytime during this year. I think they could even do it anytime during the next year if the CBA negotiations weren’t blowing up the game in 2027. You have a little time with Connor, but I personally would do it before they even bring him up. I mean, I I think that’s the way I would go about it. And I love your your 10year thing. I think I’ve been saying 8 years 80, but 10 years 100, sure, do it. If he’ll do it, and I think he would because again, I I mean, if you add up everything he’s going to make, the first three years, you’re talking about uh gez, a little over two mill for his first three years. It’d be really easy to give him 15 million for those three years and then the rest of the money is is beyond that. That really does eat into his arbitration. I don’t think his awards would really scare you. Yeah, for real. He’s a perfect candidate for this. I just saw the Zips projections come out about Connor Griffin. I mean, and I’ve never seen such aggress aggressive Zips projections. We’ll get into that. Maybe in tomorrow’s episode I’ll do the zip projections because I don’t buy into them all that much, but I’ve also never seen them so insane. They think this kid walks on water from moment one. I’m just saying. So, no, you’re not crazy. I think maybe a little naive on Paul Skins, if only because uh I just don’t think necessarily there’s any reason to do that unless you’re really trying to sell something to your fans. And you got to get me a couple extra years of for sure before I believe that. the way that you structured your deal proposal there. I I don’t see a change for the fans. They’ll still know he’s gonna be wearing pinstripes. You know what I mean? Like you just need a couple extra years to make them feel like you’ve actually done something to keep him around a little longer. Second question for today. Four interesting fits for the Pirates were released yesterday. JJ Bladeet, Michael Toglia, Christopher Morurell, Jack Farley. Thoughts? H uh Blade. Yeah. I mean, I think you I think it was actually you proposed that we should trade for Beday maybe a couple weeks ago. I think I said no to that. Um, I just personally am not all that interested in JJ Blade. I I don’t I don’t think that he’s going to advance much more. I kind of think he’s stalled out where he is. Is he better than Jack Sinsky? He has been. Do I think his ceiling is better? Um, not necessarily. I personally would just stay away from him. And now to be fair, I felt this way about JJ Blade for probably three or four years. I’m just not all that interested in him as a player. And I I do try to dismiss that stuff when I answer these things and kind of look more clinically. And I really did for this one, too. I couldn’t convince myself. I just couldn’t convince myself. And even if he is better than Sinsky, boy, it isn’t a lot. And I think they could do better. I’d rather them not get a crutch here. Uh, Toglia, power bat, corner, outfield, first baseman, former firstrounder. Pirates do need pop. I am just not sure he’s the kind of pop I want. Um, kind of hasn’t really panned out. I don’t know that I I just don’t know that he’s the right kind of guy. I’m sorry. I just I don’t agree with Toglia either. Morell is interesting. versatile, power, can play third base. I I would I would agree with your supposition that he’s the most intriguing as you put forward. I like Christopher Morell. Some of you will remember him from playing with the Cubs. He was their third baseman for a while, then they traded him off in part to get Kyle Tucker, and it didn’t really work out in Houston all that well either. Uh Morell has a ton of power. He’s not the greatest defender in the world. Um, and I think that’s probably something that will hold him back. But the Pirates do need a third baseman. And it’s hard to deny that he can do that and he can hit for power. And if you really wanted to take a cheap swing at a third baseman, that’s probably what I would do. My my best argument against it would really be is are the Pirates gonna prioritize Tayolo’s glove over Morell’s bat regardless of what we know about the offense? And my gut says probably. My gut says they probably prioritize the glove over the bat. Plus, as much as you’ll probably disagree with this and others as well, maybe you not. I shouldn’t assume what you’ll what you’ll say, but I I would think that Jared Triolo’s bat is something the Pirates believe in a little bit more than fans. Uh, and then Farley depth piece division experience. Oh, Freilley. Jake Freilley. I think you spelled it wrong in your question and I just transposed it like he was a real player. Yeah, I kind of like him. Um, your comp to Ben Gaml is accurate. I wouldn’t mind it. I think he can play. He would certainly be a nice bench bat if you ask me. Somebody that wouldn’t be bad to be able to pull off and you can kind of plug him in multiple places in the outfield. Could probably even DH for you here and there if you really had to have it. Maybe you can just spell Reynolds every once in a while, you know, something along those lines. Yeah, I don’t I don’t hate that idea. I think he could be done pretty cheap, too. I don’t think so cheap that you’re talking about like a minor league deal with an invite to to spring training, but I wouldn’t mind being locked into having a guy like that on my bench. That might not be the worst thing. Great questions today. Keep them coming because this show is built for you guys. And uh that’s it for today’s episode of Locked on Pirates. Big thanks to all of you everydayers for tuning in every single day and making me your first list. And don’t forget to follow me on social media for more Pirates Talk. And keep an eye out for the Everyday Club launch in December. We’re serious about Pirates baseball because somebody has to be. Let’s go Bucks.

Pittsburgh Pirates are steering clear of the Rule 5 Draft for position players, signaling a focused strategy as the franchise looks to build a true contender. Gary Morgan explains why stashing unproven talent isn’t compatible with a team seeking real improvement, spotlighting recent examples like Alexander Canario and discussing potential reliever targets such as Harrison Cohen and Jake Miller. Can the Pirates find hidden value in the bullpen instead?

Major League Baseball’s groundbreaking streaming deals with Netflix, ESPN, and NBC Universal could reshape the league’s economics and finally put an end to frustrating blackout rules for fans. Gary Morgan breaks down what these new TV packages mean for the Pirates’ revenue streams and future CBA negotiations while also weighing in on listener-submitted hot takes about potential Griffin and Skenes extensions and intriguing depth additions like Christopher Morel. Don’t miss this essential analysis for every dedicated Pirates fan.

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Pittsburgh Pirates, Pirates News, Pirates Rumors, MLB Rule 5 Draft, MLB Streaming, Paul Skenes, Connor Griffin, Jack Brannigan, Alexander Canario, Harrison Cohen, Jake Miller, JJ Bleday, Michael Toglia, Christopher Morel, Jake Fraley, MLB TV rights, MLB blackout rule, MLB streaming deals, ESPN MLB, MLB on Netflix, NBC MLB, Locked On Pirates, MLB offseason, baseball news, Pirates prospects, FanDuel