The 2012 Contract Issues series kicks off with a look at the Pirates.
Eligible For Free Agency (1)
- First baseman Lyle Overbay is the one Pirates player who is eligible for free agency after the season with no strings attached.
- GM Neal Huntington is also signed through 2011. Team president Frank Coonelly told Rob Biertempfel in February, "He is under contract for this season and it’s our expectation that Neal will be here for a long time. He has hot been extended at this point. We’ll continue to evaluate it as we move forward."
Contract Options (5)
- Chris Snyder: $6.75MM club option with a $750K buyout. It's difficult to picture Snyder being retained at a $6MM net price.
- Paul Maholm: $9.75MM club option with a $750K buyout. Maholm is a prime summer trade candidate, but his option will probably be declined.
- Ryan Doumit: $7.25MM club option for '12, $8.25MM club option with '13, $500K buyout. Another trade candidate, Doumit's options figure to be declined.
- Ronny Cedeno: $3MM club option with a $200K buyout. Though the price is reasonable, I can see the Pirates declining and trying someone else at shortstop next year.
- Scott Olsen: $4MM club option with a $100K buyout. Olsen appears headed to the bullpen once he recovers from a hamstring injury. This option is unlikely to be exercised. If it's declined, the Pirates must then decide whether to tender him a contract.
Arbitration Eligible (12)
- First time: Garrett Olson, Chris Resop, Garrett Jones, Charlie Morton, Evan Meek, Jose Ascanio, Steve Pearce
- Second time: Ross Ohlendorf, Joel Hanrahan, Jeff Karstens, Jose Veras
- Third time: Scott Olsen
Not all of these players will make it to arbitration, as some could fail to accrue the necessary service time and others will be non-tendered in December or cut loose beforehand. Using CAA's Super Two cutoff projection of 2.146 years of service, Andrew McCutchen's first big payday won't come until 2013.
2012 Payroll Obligation
Cot's Baseball Contracts sets the Pirates' 2012 payroll obligation at just $10.625MM, with Kevin Correia accounting for more than a third of that. You can pencil in another $4MM or so for Hanrahan and Meek. If the Pirates want to be around $40MM again they should have about $25MM to play with.
25 million after arbitration players seems pretty high. They should be able to get quite a few bargain/deadline trade pieces with that. I am not a Pirates fan at all, but I really hope they turn it around soon.
I believe Ohlendorf won his arbitration case against the Pirates despite going 1-11 in 2010.
Yes, and the majority of those losses came when he’d give up one or two runs, I don’t think that makes him a bad pitcher.
No but his record last year, terrible spring, and bad start to this season have him heading towards being a bad pitcher. Don’t be a Ross apologist 1-11 is 1-11.
Pirates will be spending some money this off-season, they can move forward now
With such a bold endorsement from Coonelly, I hope NH is renting.
I would expect the Pirates to use some of that $25M to sign Andrew McCutchen to an extension.
Hopefully the Pirates don’t pick up any of those options.
I agree with gonfalon that the Bucs should spend some of that $25M on an extension for McCutchen. The Pirates have some tough decisions to make in regards to their 40-man roster next offseason. To ease the roster crunch, the Bucs should deal some minor leaguers in exchange for some young, but established major leaguers (specifically a SS) that are controllable for at least 3 years.
Unfortunately young controllable short stops don’t grow on trees. And to get one you have to pay a hefty price. Not sure the pirate farm system is strong enough to make that kind of move.
depends who your trying to acquire, pirates have a better system them most think