DK’s Daily Shot of Pirates: Obligatory lefty signing

DK’s Daily Shot of Pirates: Obligatory lefty signing

[Music] [Applause] One point I’ve made for years really is that the last thing you’d want as a Pittsburgh baseball fan is for Ben Harington to have more money at his disposal. I don’t think that the signing of Gregory Sto is bad in a vacuum. I don’t really understand it in context. Good morning to you. Good Wednesday morning. I’m Dan Kawatovich of DK Pittsburgh Sports. This is Daily Shot of Pirates presented by our friends over at the Northshore Tavern. Comes your way bright and early every weekday if you’re into football andor hockey. I also offer daily shots of Steelers Penguins in the same place that you found this. And yes, there was activity at Major League Baseball’s winter meetings yesterday in Orlando, Florida, related to the Pirates. No, it wasn’t signing a hitter. It was signing Sto, a lefty reliever who’s 30 years old, to a one-year deal worth 7.75 million. Sto was a two-time all-star earlier in his career that was in Detroit, and he finished the 2025 season split between the Orioles and the Mets. the 4.18 erra and most importantly given he’s coming out of the pen a 1.43 whip. That’s walks and hits per inning pitched. Struck out 70, walks 24 over 60 and a third innings. Made 70 appearances. Known for a long time both for his velocity. He’ll sit around 96 97 and his durability. He takes the ball. So all good, right? What’s the problem? Well, maybe there’s none. Maybe he combines with Dennis Santana, who’s the presumed closer going into next season. He’s a vital lefty on a team that really doesn’t have a whole heck of a lot of that. And the cost by market standards isn’t all that high and obviously neither is the term at just a year. About that context, though. See, we’ve gone over on this program many, many times how much money it looks like Cherington will be able to spend. And as I’ve laid it out, it would be around 25 million if payroll were to not increase over last season. It’ be around 33 million if payroll were to go up to around 95 million, which is where I’m kind of guessing it’ll be. And you know, again, in the event that there’s some extraordinary bat available, and by that I mean Kyle Schwarber, who just signed to stay in Philly yesterday, that they could take it as high as 110. More on that in the next segment, by the way. So, you had whatever it is, 30ish million, and you just committed close to 8 million of that to a lefty reliever. And I’m, you know, I’m not nuts about that. To me, if this team had 50 million available, it should spend 60 million on hitting. Relievers are unpredictable. Relievers tend to go up and down throughout their careers except for the very, very, very best. So, if you have a lot of appearances and a lot of production in one year, there’s a better than average chance that you’re going to have a fall-off in one or both the next year. 70 appearances is a lot in 2025. 60 and a3 innings isn’t, but the appearances, amount of times up and down, all that stuff is that’s a concern. Sto’s best pitch is the sinker. Opponents batted 314 off of it. Now, it’s part of a sinker slider combo, and the slider’s been really, really good. But it’s not like hitters couldn’t figure that out and say, “I’m not waiting for the slider.” When he sends the sinker in here, I’m going at it. And that whip, that 1.43, for those of you who don’t follow that statistic, and you really, really should when it comes to relievers, that’s not good. 1.43 is not good. That’s a base runner and a half per inning pitched. And if you isolate it to the 25 appearances he made with the Mets later in the season, that was 1.625. That is a not good at all whip. Another thing to think about here, the Mets are the only team really in all of baseball that has unlimited payroll. Even the Dodgers don’t because the Dodgers don’t spend from money that is outside the Dodgers business. They just happen to have a massive local TV contract. The Mets do. Steve Cohen is the only owner in all of professional sports who spends from his own personal finances. And for that man’s own personal finances, this whole thing is just a drop in the bucket. Well, yesterday the Mets lost their closer. They lost Edwin Diaz to well, yeah, the Dodgers. Diaz signed a three-year, $66 million deal. I’m sorry, but this is for a relief pitcher. 3 years and 666 million. That’s the mockery that the Dodgers are making of baseball. But on the day that the Mets lost their closer, they still didn’t make a move to keep Soto. And please don’t tell me that it wouldn’t have been in the Mets budget to sign Sto, you know, a year and $8 million or anything at all that was more than what the Pirates offered. That kind of stuff always makes me a little bit queasy. What do they know? What did they find out when he was under their roof? Swear I’m not saying this stuff to be a buzzkill. I don’t really have that kind of personality. I just this just just now no now. Not in this context. 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 lockboxes, safes, and locks to secure your firearms. Learn more at gunstorage check.org. That’s gunstoch checkck.org. Brought to you by NSSF, the firearm industry trade association. [Music] Today’s J1Q comes from Lou who says, “DK, did Kyle Schwarber’s agent get him more dollars by saying that the Pirates were interested in him given that he did resign with the Phillies?” The answer that I’ve got for you, Lou, is no. Now, could it have made a difference along the way? Sure. Anytime a team makes an offer, whether that offer is competitive or not, the market builds. You’ve made an offer, you’re now one of the teams that’s made an offer. And if there are five or six teams that have made offers, that’s going to be more scary to the team that really, really wants to keep him because at any given moment, one of those teams could up those offers. The Pirates offer was four years and 120, which obviously would have obliterated every free agent signing. Actually, maybe every free agent signing they’ve ever had combined. But as often is the case, once the deal is done, you’ll find out about a lot of the various offers that were made. It turns out that the Mets, surprise surprise, offered the highest average annual value by going for three years and 120. The Reds offered five years at 125 in parenthesis here, cuz this is interesting. The Reds would subsequently say after Schwarber stayed put that they’re not going to spend hardly anything on free agency the rest of the way and that in fact they made a bid for Schwarber primarily because he’s from Middletown Ohio which is just about an hour away from Cincinnati and they felt that it would have been a massive lure for ticket sales and essentially dude would have paid for himself and parenthesis and the Orioles another team you’re not expecting to hear much from this time of year, matched the Phillies offer. And that’s probably the one that made it happen because by every accounting out of Philadelphia, what the Phillies had done is they had given Schwarber everything that he wanted except for guaranteeing the fifth year. They had it down as a club option. Once they guaranteed the fifth year, it was over. As I’ve been telling you for a while here, everything that I’d heard in the baseball world had strongly suggested that Schwarber did not want to leave. Big clubhouse guy with the Phillies. Loved everything about being there. Had his biggest years offensively, all those there’s also those inviting dimensions of Citizens Bank Park. Well, that’s how it worked out. What needs to be taken from this is not, oh, the pirates tried to fake their way through this or whatever. I’m sorry, you don’t put $120 million on the table for show. All he has to do is say yes. The thing that does seem relevant here to me is that there are a lot of teams that want these types of hitters, maybe more than we’d thought. And as I mentioned on yesterday’s show about not necessarily wanting to wait too long, I don’t think these hitters are going to be waiting a whole lot longer to get where they’re going to go. I appreciate the question. I appreciate everybody listening to Daily Shot of Pirates. Going to do another one of these tomorrow. [Music]

Is Gregory Soto just the obligatory lefty signing?

#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!