[Drellich/Rosenthal] The Pirates and Marlins have a sudden willingness to spend. Here’s what could be behind it
[Drellich/Rosenthal] The Pirates and Marlins have a sudden willingness to spend. Here’s what could be behind it
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The explanation in this article makes far more sense for why the Pirates would be willing to spend than anything else. With a pending lockout coming in 2027, I don’t think it’s crazy to suggest that big market teams will want to stop revenue sharing with poor teams if poor teams are just pocketing that money.
It’s either the MLB implements a salary cap/floor, which will require the Pirates to spend money to get to that floor, or they’ll keep the same structure and have to spend to justify continuing to get revenue sharing from big market teams. Kinda seems inevitable that this team will be spending money, simply because they have to.
Don’t have the athletic and the blurb posted unfortunately focuses on the marlins situation. But likely facing an issue with the payroll being flat for 10+ years while revenues have increased
I’ll believe it when I see it
IDK, just seems like PR to me. The Pirates are such a clown show even if they do have the best offer (which they probably won’t) most players will gladly take less money to go somewhere else. And I think the pirates front office/ownership know this.
Now they can say “hey we tried!”
Ken also reported that the Pirates never truly offered Naylor anything.
Article sites a couple of interesting points:
Naylor was never offered a contract by the Pirates, due to the deal with the M’s coming together too quickly for the Bucs to get involved.
The rumor of spending could be to convince larger market teams that they’re willing to be competitive in order to increase revenue sharing in the next CBA.
If logical free agent fits like Ryan O’Hearn, Jorge Polanco, and Kazuma Okamoto opt to sign with contenders, the Pirates will look in the trade market (they have reportedly checked in with the Cards for Donavan, Nootbar, and Gorman).
> The Pirates never actually made an offer to Naylor, according to people briefed on the discussions. Just two weeks after the conclusion of the World Series, Naylor reached agreement with the Seattle Mariners on a five-year contract with an AAV of $18.5 million. The deal happened so quickly, the Pirates did not get seriously involved.
The Pittsburgh Pirates, after expressing interest in first baseman Josh Naylor, are doing the same with designated hitter Kyle Schwarber, while considering infielders Jorge Polanco, Ryan O’Hearn and Kazuma Okamoto as perhaps more realistic free-agent options.
The Miami Marlins are active in the closer market, talking with free-agent right-hander Michael King and other starting pitchers, and are also weighing upgrades at first and third base.
Both teams are perennially bottom-five in payroll. Both have been the subject of past grievances from the Major League Baseball Players Association over their lack of spending, with the Marlins potentially at risk of prompting another for 2025.
In the view of some player agents, the surprising entrances of the Pirates and Marlins into the marketplace are curious and — with the sport’s collective bargaining agreement set to expire after next season — no coincidence.
“There is a possibility of a fight among clubs over revenue sharing, with the smaller markets seeing a greater contribution,” agent Seth Levinson said. “The payors (large-market clubs) will argue that insufficient revenue-sharing funds are being spent on player acquisition.
“Hence, it wouldn’t be a surprise if the smaller markets compete for talent in the free-agent market to convince the payors that they are committed to putting a better product on the field.”
Both the Pirates and Marlins, however, say their sudden willingness to spend, as outlined by people familiar with their plans, is all about opportunity.
The Pirates want to win during National League Cy Young Award winner Paul Skenes’ remaining four seasons of club control. The Marlins, after jumping from 62 wins in 2024 to 79 in ‘25, want to continue their quest to build a perennial contender.
Other factors, though, could be at play.
The unpopularity of both teams in their respective markets is likely a driver, according to an executive with a rival club who was granted anonymity for his candor. The Pirates ranked 26th in attendance last season and the Marlins 28th, ahead of only the two clubs that played in minor-league ballparks. But whether the clubs actually change their behavior or are simply talking big remains to be seen, the executive said.
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Pirates owner Bob Nutting speaks with then-Pirates infielder Adam Frazier before the team’s home opener on April 4, 2025, the same day a plane flew a banner above PNC Park imploring Nutting to “Sell the team”.
If the Pirates and Marlins are seeking to justify increased revenue sharing, as Levinson and others suggest, they are assuming the game’s general economic structure will remain intact in the next CBA. The owners, however, are expected to pursue a salary cap that would dramatically change the sport’s entire financial landscape, including revenue sharing.
In any event, the Marlins might be operating with an additional motivation. They could face a fresh grievance from the union because their spending in 2025 did not meet a specified threshold outlined in the Collective Bargaining Agreement.
If a team’s final luxury-tax payroll is not one and a half times the amount it receives in a given season from local revenue sharing, it will likely stand a better chance of losing a grievance for not properly using its revenue-sharing money to improve on-field performance, which the CBA requires.
Major League Baseball has not yet released the final luxury-tax payrolls from 2025. But the Marlins were expected to be among the highest revenue-sharing recipients at roughly $70 million if not more, according to people briefed on the league’s revenue-sharing distributions who were not authorized to speak publicly. Public estimates put the Marlins’ final luxury-tax payroll in the $85 million range — well below 150 percent of its revenue-sharing take.
No other team is thought to be in the same position as the Marlins. The Pirates’ final luxury-tax payroll, projected to be in the $105 million range, is expected to satisfy the thresholds outlined by the CBA.
The union can file grievances even against teams that reach the 150 percent standard. But when a club fails to hit the specified number, the burden of proof shifts from the union to the club.
In recent years, such grievances have given the appearance of being stuck in purgatory.
Over 2018-19, the union brought revenue-sharing grievances against the Marlins, Pirates, Athletics and Tampa Bay Rays. The Athletic reported in March of this year that one of the complaints had been dropped, according to people briefed on the process. But the two against Miami remained active at the time. The union declined comment Sunday on the state of the previous complaints.
One club official said the union does not appear interested in aggressively pursuing revenue-sharing complaints. Determining the damages in such grievances can be difficult, which is perhaps one reason the cases have yet to be decided. Often, such matters are settled in collective bargaining, effectively becoming negotiating chips. But outstanding revenue-sharing grievances were not resolved in the most recent round of bargaining, while other types of grievances were.
Having yet to be punished, the Marlins perhaps see little danger in maintaining low payrolls. But while many in the industry expect them to trade their highest-paid player, right-hander Sandy Alcantara, purging his $17.3 million salary would make it that much more difficult for the team to satisfy the thresholds specified in the CBA.
Unless, that is, they spend big this winter.
Skenes was the first pick in the 2023 draft, the National League Rookie of the Year in 2024 and the NL Cy Young winner in ‘25. Yet only now are the Pirates preparing to invest around him. And even then, their largesse will go only so far.
According to Fangraphs, the Pirates ended last season with an estimated cash payroll of $87 million. Trades of closer David Bednar and third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes last July helped drop their estimated 2026 number, including projections for arbitration-eligible players, to $66 million.
A trade of righty Mitch Keller, who is owed $16.5 million next season and under contract for two more after that, would create even greater flexibility.
“We’ve got to deliver more to our fans, to everybody who cares about the team, including the people in our clubhouse,” general manager Ben Cherington said. “It really wasn’t that we weren’t trying to do that the last two offseasons. But in retrospect, you can look at those offseasons as conservative in the outcomes.
“It was not necessarily intentionally that way. But that’s how they ended up. And we’ve got an opportunity. We’ve got pitching. We’ve got young talent coming. It’s just that we’ve got to deliver more. It’s time to do that. It’s past time to do that.”
Like a number of owners, the Pirates’ Bob Nutting has not yet set the 2026 payroll. Within the organization, $100 million is seen as a reasonable target. The closest the Pirates have come to $100 million was in 2016, when they fell just short. But even at that figure, they still might be only bottom 10 in payroll, and only marginally improved.
Even if they actually intended to spend money, Cherington is such a moron that I do not trust him to spend it wisely. He’s always quantity over quality and he collects middle infielders like Pokémon.
Here’s the thing though: They must now be ready to spend a premium, because all these years of mismanagement have actively made both destinations undesirable for good players in the prime of their careers.
I don’t know why anyone is entertaining the notion The Pirates will spend more money on their roster. Simply put, actions speak louder than words and that’s all the proof anyone should need.