Pirates owner Bob Nutting had some interesting comments on
payroll and other matters in a recent chat with reporters, including
Bill Brink of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Club president Frank
Coonelly also opined on those topics, as covered by several
media outlets. Those pieces contain a wealth of worthwhile information and
observations, but we’ll touch upon a few highlights here:
- As
ever, the low-budget Bucs drew scrutiny for their finances. Despite nearly
reaching $100 million in Opening Day payrolls in recent seasons, the club
is presently hovering in the range of $70 million for the 2019 season.
That downward movement in spending led Nutting to issue the money quote of
the day: “We need to focus on the things we believe are controllable.”
While that’s a dubious claim on some levels, Nutting explained that he
believes “payroll scale and range, broadly, is not controllable.” As Brink
notes, however, it’s a bit of a chicken-and-egg issue, as the Pittsburgh's
ability to generate local income is dependent in some part upon its
on-field investment.
- Nutting
unsurprisingly demurred on details, particularly relating to the question
of whether attendance dips were responsible for pulling down the payroll.
He focused instead on the concept that the club is “always going to have
limitations” and simply needs to “maximize the impact of every dollar”
that is allocated to payroll. There was a hint that GM Neal Huntington
could have some cash stashed in his back pocket. Nutting said that the
long-time baseball ops leader “always has to have some room to work,”
seemingly indicating that was the case at present.
- Coonelly
put something of a different spin on things, saying that fulfilling a need
“to get younger, more dynamic and more athletic” left the organization
with a large number of pre-arbitration players, the presence of whom
“explains our payroll.” Regarding concerns about how some of the roster
spots were being filled (in particular, shortstop); Coonelly noted that
“every established player in the big leagues was a player who had to
establish themselves at some point.” That’s true enough in the abstract,
although surely some would quibble on the details as they pertain to some
players. If youth is to account for the notably meager payroll, it won’t
provide any excuses on the field. Coonelly said without equivocation: “My
expectations are that the Pirates will win the NL Central.”
- Paying
market rates to established big leaguers obviously is not part of the
formula in Pittsburgh. But Nutting did offer some guidance on how the club
is spending some of the $50 million it took home as its cut of the MLB
Advanced Media sale. The organization intends to double the scale of its
facility in the Dominican Republic, helping to facilitate a pipeline of
affordable young talent. That sort of investment won’t boost present big
leaguers — it will perhaps do the opposite. It’s of greater concern when
viewed through the lens of the international changes instituted in the
latest collective bargaining agreement, which place hard caps on the
bonuses that can be paid to the very same players the Pirates are
investing heavily in wooing and developing.
- Nevertheless,
Nutting did note that he would like to see some changes in the amateur
intake system. Just what that might look like isn’t clear, but the Bucs
owner suggested that minor-league earnings are in need of some
corrections. As Brink quoted him on
Twitter: “It’s time, and it’s past due, to take a
serious, fresh look at how those are being handled.”
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