Reports of Pirates’ intent to spend this offseason are likely fool’s gold

Major League Baseball’s general managers meetings take place this week, and one of the big news items to come out early on came from baseball insider Ken Rosenthal. He said on Tuesday that the Pittsburgh Pirates and Miami Marlins are telling agents that are looking to be more aggressive this offseason and potentially spend more money.

That spending could come either via free agency or in the form of taking back salary in trades.

It remains to be seen what the Marlins will do, but history suggests that sort of report regarding the Pirates is nothing more than fool’s gold.

Pirates have to prove they are willing to spend

The Pirates have notoriously been one of the cheapest, lowest-spending teams in baseball. They have not signed a free agent to a multiyear contract since they signed pitcher Ivan Nova to a three-year, $26 million contract back in 2016. Every other team in baseball has signed a multiyear free agent since then. Including the Athletics, Marlins, Colorado Rockies and Tampa Bay Rays.