The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.
This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Anthony Franco of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss…
- The Red Sox calling up Marcelo Mayer with Alex Bregman landing on the injured list (0:55)
- The Pirates losing Jared Jones to surgery and not considering a trade of Paul Skenes (11:30)
Plus, we answer your questions, including…
- Should the Orioles trade Félix Bautista at the deadline? (29:35)
- What are the chances the Giants could sign Kyle Tucker this offseason? (35:10)
- Are the Cardinals for real? (40:35)
- Does Kevin Alcántara of the Cubs get traded this summer? (48:10)
- The Dodgers have 14 pitchers on the injured list. Does this reflect poorly on the club’s training and conditioning? (51:15)
Check out our past episodes!
- The Disappointing Orioles, Dalton Rushing, And The Phillies’ Bullpen – listen here
- Devers Drama, Managerial Firings, And Jordan Lawlar – listen here
- Replacing Triston Casas, A Shakeup In Texas, And The Blue Jays’ Rotation – listen here
The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff. Check out their Facebook page here!
Photo courtesy of Bob DeChiara, Imagn Images
The Pirates SHOULD trade Paul Skenes, if they continue to lose money as they did in 2024.
dkpittsburghsports.com/team/site-stuff/feed?page=0…
Rich – Taking out loans is not the same thing as losing money, your article sounds like it’s just Nutting tapping into his team’s equity.
Pirates made $47M Operating Income last year per Forbes.
forbes.com/teams/pittsburgh-pirates/
A detailed four-month long investigation of the Pirates finances found that they lost money in 2024.
Rich – With all due respect, that’s quite vague. The important thing is what was the team’s bottom line with regard to only baseball operations, as opposed to how much did they lost on investments etc? It’s a lot more complicated than it seems, pretending to lose money by including other ventures is quite common in the business world.
It’s also quite common for proud people to not be open about running a financial sh&t show. Detailed, 4 month investigation. Maybe the Nutting criticism should be focussed on financial incompetence not profiteering.
DKPittsburghSports isn’t the most reliable of news sources.
I saw the guy on Foul Territory shortly after it came out. He seemed straight up. It was a little while ago, but I got the impression they went in looking for profit.
fopp – How would they have access to information that Forbes doesn’t?
You are testing my early onset dementia, Fever. 2 weeks ago is vague. See if you can find it in the foul territory YouTube archives. Pretty sure he spoke to plenty of people on the inside. They put effort into it. Dude has been around them for a long time is my recollection.
fopp – I hear ya my friend, I’m gonna have to pass on this one as it would be too time-intensive and I’m short on time right now.
My question is, financials are confidential ….. how are they getting insider financial information? If he’s really losing money, why isn’t he looking into selling? It doesn’t make any sense to me.
You spend 12 hours a day commenting on MLBTR, maybe that’s why you’re short on time
He might just be bad at it.
rare – You really should invest in a digital watch to help improve your concept of time.
si.com/mlb/pirates/news/new-report-raises-question…
You mean the detailed investigation that failed to highlight they don’t account for local broadcast revenue or MLB distributions?? I wouldn’t put much weight behind anything not accounting for those key revenue sources.
Nutting is likely leveraging the team and trying to show as little profit in paper ad possible. That way he avoids paying income tax. Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk do this regularly and Amazon regularly has zero profit claimed.
That is called maximizing the tax code, not entities operating at a loss. From all that I’ve read about Nutting and the Pirates finances, it seems pretty clear the cheap bx@$%@d is draining every possible penny he can for himself.
What has been since 2016 that they ve signed a free agent to more than a 1 year deal?? That is absolutely pathetic for a pro sports franchise and an absolute disservice to the Pittsburgh area and it’s fans.
FPG – it is my contention that no sports team loses money. Here’s why: accounting measures we can’t even begin to understand (unless you work for one of the big firms). Theres is a depreciation taken on player contracts, insurance, off ledger income like parking. Marketing, and jersey sales, etc. In addition, and specifically in the case of the Pirates, almost $60mm in shared MLB money. Of which $9mm went back into the team in the form of Pham and Heaney.
Nutting is a bad bad owner. These ownerse are all billionaires or multi- billion dollar entities. They don’t do it because they love it, the do it because the make money. And if they didn’t make money, they’d do what any billionaire would do, sell for a huge profit and give on!
Skenes is going to be one of the greatest wasted talents in the history of MLB. He is a generational player and will continue to throw 7 and 8 inning quality starts and loses games 2-1 because Nutting is too cheap to use the money from the league (paid to sign players) to not sign any players.
I feel for the kid, and if you watch the body language, he’s already feeling it.
sad – Agreed!
One thing I do believe negatively impacts the Pirates and also the Guards and Reds is the median household income in Western PA and Ohio. For instance Ohio’s is 41st in the country.
So yes, when you have a high income local fanbase like the Red Sox, Mets, Yankees and Dodgers then you can afford to spend more on player payroll because your fans are able to spend more.
FPG – I would agree, but, the average seat in Pittsburgh is $89. So, I assume luxury box sales aren’t hurting. They also saw 1 million fans.
statista.com/statistics/193673/average-ticket-pric…
espn.com/mlb/attendance/_/year/2024
The key is, and always will be, if you put a good product on the field the people will come.
Sad – I’m looking at the same source as yours, the Pirates are 7th-lowest. The midwest region represents much of the bottom, as i had mentioned …… Twins, Royals, Pirates, Tigers, Reds, Guardians and Brewers ….. 7 of the 12 lowest. And the Pirates 2023 total revenue was $309M which also ranked them 7th-lowest.
There are other factors attendance-wise, for instance the Rays have had a pretty good product over the past several years and we all know how bad their attendance has been.
I don’t put too much stock into Average Ticket Price data these days ….. you know why? Dynamic pricing. The team can change prices at any time, they can flood brokers like StubHub with greatly reduced prices, they can do what the Red Sox do – giving away tickets for free, or bundling them with food/beverage packages.
BTW – Pirates payroll this year is 4th-lowest so they are being cheap but not overly.
Gee……
This reporter and his other investigative reporters must be conspiracy nuts.
We all know from reading the US sports media that all MLB owners are billionaires and that their teams are swimming in so much money they don’t know how to spend it all. Those that don’t spend wildly on players salaries are cheap.
Yesterday the Twins debt and now this!
Lot’s of kids follow sports and that’s fine. Unfortunately, many grow to be writers and commenters, but they don’t know anything about economics or business…..which is also a major problem throughout America with many people under 50 years old.
They did not lose money! Smoke screen by owner! Poor little billionaire!
Way to address that rather lengthy article. I love your use of data to prove the writer wrong.
The article says that the Pirates spent more than twice as much on baseball operations outside of MLB payroll as the Braves and Blue Jays. Do you really think that the Pirates other baseball operations costs are even as high as that of either of those two?
Those two teams release those numbers to the public as part of their stockholder reports. The Pirates do not and I doubt Nutting released released them to the website where the article is hosted.
That is just the most obvious fallacy in that article.
Why wouldn’t it be ?
Corporate records are intentionally misleading on a profit/loss basis due to tax implications.
Nutting renovated himself a fancy new office… that’s an ops expense! Hey, my books show a profit this year… let’s apply some depreciation! Did i lose money? No, it’s coming hand over fist, but, I’m allowed to say something is worth less as a percentage of it’s acquisition cost, even if it didn’t actually lose money in actual cash value if I sold it at top market! Then that depreciation is a loss on the books, even though I ended the year with more money than I started, and, own exactly the same things!
Really, there’s no sense in looking anything beyond 3 line items:
1) player payroll/benefits;
2) league wide revenue received (base or rev share)
3) attendance * average ticket price
Those give you a fairly decent idea how things are going. Feel free to lump bonuses for amateur and international signings in the payroll category, not the same as pulling up CBT numbers.
Dice – Exactly! Even the teams that actually did lose money like the Yankees, Mets, Giants etc are seeing their equity rise every year.
Owning a MLB team is one of the best investments you could possibly have.
FPG, there’s the balance sheet to measure equity (assets minus liabilities) and the income statement to measure profit (revenue minus costs). This is from my background of studying Annual Statements published by insurers.
The mysterious “good will” is an asset. I think that’s what you’re referring to and yes, it grows over time. Good will is kind of like brand value. Franchises have loads of it! That’s kind of the fudge factor in these calculations.
hayzee – Trust me, there’s a lot of fudge in financials. LOL
Are these “investigators” taking into account the revenue sharing that the Pirates always receive? How about stadium revenue used for debt service? If the Pirates are funneling income from concessions, parking, luxury suites, licensing, advertising, and sponsorship to pay off bonds that were used to finance the PNC Park construction and operations then that would impact their findings.
Anything related to or associated with those under age 50 are wrong by default with Samuel. Being an angry old man unsatisfied with life he’s has to villafy those younger than him. A sky is falling approach helps him come to terms with the realization he’s well into the back 9 of life and he’s well over par…
Yes trade Skenes to the Mets for a package of Jett Williams, Vientos, Tidwell and Megill. Than the Mets can bring up Mauricio
So if Bregman is injured does Devers refuse to fill in?
boston.com/sports/boston-red-sox/2025/03/29/rafael…
It was the teams decision in spring training that Devers wouldn’t play defense.
The team made that dumb decision. The team now needs to figure out what they’re doing.
Devers wanted to continue to play the field, they said no. So now they deal with the consequences.
Joe, devers wanted to play 3B, and, 3B only. He was told no 3B, and then it was devers who decided, fine, I *refuse* to play any sort of defense.
As supported by blowing up and airing dirty laundry when breslow had a private 1 on 1 conversation about playing defense again where the team needed him, and, where his lack of skill wouldn’t cripple the team and pitchers the way his 3b play had for years and years.
He’s apparently been refusing to play any sort of defense for years.
Wow, that’s quite the assumption on your part that Devers wouldn’t have been a liability at 1B if he tried to play it. But I suppose if you start from a standpoint of wanting to bash him any assumption that helps that is fair game.
Devers has been working out at 1B prior to games for a week now. Playing 1B is an option if Toro’s bat begins to drop off.
Devers hurts the team playing at 3B. A poor hitting, good defensive 3B adds more to the team winning. He will not go back to 3B. He may play 1B soon.
What is dumb, is trying to argue that moving Devers off 3B was a dumb decision, something you continue to do.
Joemo: Agreed. I think it may be best for Devers’ shoulders to stay at DH. So, I like the way it ended up.
Suit, im fine with devers as a dh.. as long as he’s off 3B permanently I’m happy.
But I don’t think it’s fair or accurate to take paraphrasing that came with qualifiers, like the actual words ‘basically told’ that we’re further distilled through interpreters, and push that up the chain as if the management told devers no defense never, anywhere, and kept jerking him around.
I dislike seeing that sort of theory, not that you gave it mind you, because there’s a lot of complexity. I’ve been in enough suits and deals to know where these things take 90* turns when I see them, and, there’s a lot here on both sides that isn’t in the open.
Triston Casas could be replaced with a wooden fence post that you find at Home Depot and it wouldn’t have any effect on the Red Sox. The only worse fielder at 1B in all of baseball is (maybe) Raffy. Cora’s daughter that had the graduation that Cora went to could out-hit Casas’ 2025 batting line. There isn’t much to replace.
Troy – Pretty sure they are talking about pre-rib-injury Casas, the one who was a great hitter.
As for fielding, it’s first base …. who cares about defense. You think Vladdy is a good first baseman? It’s the easiest position to play, that’s why the worst fielders end up there before transitioning to fulltime DH.
I too am talking about pre-injury Casas, who was awful in 100 PAs before getting hurt.
I share your views on 1B fielding not being a big deal because it’s 1B
Troy – I wrote pre-RIB-injury ….. not pre-knee-injury ;O)
Last year, prior to the rib injury, he had an .857 OPS.
And the year before (2023) he had an .856 OPS
So it’s very fair to say when he’s fully healthy he’s an .856 OPS hitter, if not better.
Casas had half a year of good hitting and that’s it.
@Tory Percival’s iPad nailed it. Perfectly said
OPS isn’t the only hitting stat indicator…
Dalbec had a good early run as well…
Exactly! I have called Casas Dalbec 2.0 but I do see clear differences between them so that term might not be accurate
GaSox – True, but two of the bigger differences was development and plate discipline.
Casas was a fulltime MLB player at age 23 and had far better plate discipline with a career .365 OBP through his first full season.
Dalbec wasn’t a fulltime MLB player until age 26 and his career OBP was only .308 through his first full season.
I’m going from my ever fading memory.
During the entire 1991 NLCS between the Pirates and Braves, the Pirates 1B platoon of Orlando Merced and Gary Redus were outclassed defensively by the Braves duo of Brian Hunter and Sid Bream, especially Bream. There was one key game where the Pirates poor 1B defense and the Braves exceptional defense factored in the result of the game, therefore the series.
Fever, that’s slightly misleading… dalbec played 3 years college ball.. you know classes, studying, maybe working… he was taken after junior year i think? And actually IIRC, either high school or early college he actually pitched as well, so, he wasn’t always an infielder to start with – part of that limited prep time was on the pitching side of things.
Now compare:
Casas was drafted out of high school. At 18 he joined the red sox organization and ate drank and slept baseball, with 100% effort on working out his body and baseball skills. That was his one big focus. Developmentally, I think he was always a fielder as well.
Not comparable to use ages of debut and development arcs IMO.
Mayer is 5 for 12 with two doubles since striking out his first three at bats. Said 0 for 4 game was followed all sorts of detailed analysis about how he wouldn’t be able to hit major league pitching.
hayzee – That is exactly why you should ignore those “analysts” and pay attention to me. My batting average on predictions is much higher than theirs ;O)
Do you use credibility as explained in Stein’s Paradox?
hayzee – I don’t use anything from George Steinbrenner.
efron.ckirby.su.domains/other/Article1977.pdf
127 pages. Can you put it in a nutshell? Or we have to get a PhD to understand the context of your comment?
As for Mayer, no one could make a comment as to if he can handle MLB pitching until an adequate number of ABs occurs– at least a full season, maybe more. Look at Spencer Torkelson for how many ABs you need to assess it. And on him, jury is *still* out. We won’t know for quite some time what Mayer can *really* do (there will be many adjustments on both sides of the ball over the next few years)..
tosh – I can’t speak for Hayzee as his brain is very, very different than mine ….. but I believe he may possibly be referring to Mayer’s SoCal smooth, laid back disposition that allows him to go through anything without it affecting him mentally.
In the words of Cora “The pulse is the pulse, and he [Mayer] has a very slow one”. For once, Cora is actually speaking the truth!
For instance, today he’s batting cleanup in his 5th MLB game. Normally that would phase a rookie with only 4 career games under this belt, but not Mayer.
In fact the last 3 guys to do it were Yoshida in 2023, Mo Vaughn, and Jim Rice in 1974. That’s very impressive company!!
Yo should eata mo rice?
It’s 9 pages. Talks about predicting batting averages for a season after 45 at bats. Not so much individually but in a group of players. The basic idea is that when you don’t have enough data, what else can you use? I applied the concept in a presentation on pricing personal auto insurance. Often, a small amount of time driving is not enough to predict outcomes.
hayzee – Don’t you think auto insurance rates are discriminatory in nature?
Just because more single drivers cause accidents than married drivers, and people with lower credit scores get into more accidents than higher credit scores, and renters get into more accidents than homeowners, and high school grads get into more accidents than college grads, and men get into more accidents than women, why should that impact anyone’s rates?
They’re not allowed to be unfairly discriminatory. So rather than age, you use years driving. That’s just an example. Credit rating has been argued about quite a bit. If insurers aren’t allowed to charge different rates on certain characteristics, companies will select more carefully, where they’re allowed. It’s very politicized and highly regulated. I have moved on from that business.
I think predicting without the correct amount of data is folly– literally impossible. Just guesses / speculation. But it is ripe for people who would like to gain power/respect by taking short cuts. Speak with confidence, while others are reserved. Frame yourself as a standout. Like all the bloggy writers on prospects or desperate marginal executives looking for a leg up. But that’s the two sides of that coin. Very boring really, if you’re rational. Simply a waiting game and the data will speak for itself.
Fever, speaking of different brains, a quick hi from likely the most abnormal one you know! You picked a fine break to visit Atlanta. Hope you’re going to be enjoying the trip.
It’s cooler than normal, and, at around 60-70% the humidity isn’t as bad either for late may.
Wish I could’ve caught a game while you were here, but, these days they downgraded me to salvage therapy – not that I’m complaining, many a fine car has been built from salvage LOL…
5x normal chemo dosages though got me in the wringer – but, early returns show it’s having an effect!
tosh – I hear you on the speaking with confidence etc.
Red Sox fans see and hear it every day, the manager and coaches always boasting about knowing what’s wrong and knowing the changes they need to make to improve ….. and yet nothing ever changes, nothing ever improves, and quite often they are just repeating what people like myself had been saying for months.
It would be nice if just once they held themselves accountable, acknowledged their strategy was wrong …. but they never do.
Fever is smart at times, but he has a lot of bias. He does not like the Red Sox, so anything he argues is tacked on with negativity.
GaSox – One of my favorite lines that I use often when people suspect I’m crazy is from Big Bang Theory, “I’m not crazy, my mother had me tested”. LOL!
Thank you for the info and well wishes, I’m looking forward to it. One thing I can say, it’s the only park I’ve been to that has self-serve ice cream machines ….. really comes in handy!
Had to look up what that meant, sorry to hear man. And definitely true about fine cars! JFK’s 1961 Lincoln Continental for one.
I’ll keep praying for you my friend, maybe you can get to All-Star Village in July. Those things are usually free.
Keeping it on a positive note, I’m calling it now …. Sox will win today in extra innings!! I can feel it!!
Okay they let me down yet again, but I will STILL keep it positive!
Rafaela had a great game at the plate, made some nice catches and his game-ending throw was impressive. We won’t talk about the absolutely boneheaded baserunning blunder that caused Will Flemming’s anger to practically melt my car speakers.
Abreu ended his horrific slump with a mammoth homerun, his team-leading 13th.
Duran and Devers continued to carry the offense with a combined 3-for-8 and 2 walks.
Raffy now has an amazing MLB-leading 45 Walks and league-leading 50 RBI,which puts him on pace for 140 RBI. Considering his lack of RBI opportunities that’s extremely impressive.
And Mayer became only the 3rd Sox player since Jim Rice in 1974 to bat cleanup by their 5th MLB game (Yoshida and Mo Vaughn being the others).
I haven’t looked at the stats Fever… you know anywhere to see how many opportunities devers had with men on (not just risp since fenway…. well… 1st to home isn’t uncommon and the taters count.)
I feel like the sox get men on base… they just abandoned them there. One of their 1 run games i think they went 0-8 risp, sticks in my head. They could do better with a handful of the bats, but, I don’t really feel team-wide obp has been terrible this season. It’s stringing things together and bringing them home that is, isn’t it?
GaSox – Numbers can definitely distort perception when other numbers aren’t taken into consideration.
For instance Bregman is obviously having a great season at the plate, but in Close & Late he’s batting .188 with a .497 OPS
The Red Sox have a +12 Run Differential and Cleveland has a -17 because the Sox have run up the score against position players pitching and Cleveland has lost big in a few games.
It all comes down to situational hitting and making contact, nothing good comes out of striking out unless you’re afraid of hitting into a doubleplay.
Sometimes Cora gets it, sometimes he calls for a bunt …. but not nearly as often as he should.
Do you know yesterday Story bunted for the first time since he was a rookie in 2016! He should definitely do it more often, and so should guys like Rafaela and Hamilton. Make things happen, cause the other team to make errors. That big run the Sox scored on a wild pitch the other day, never would have happened if Raffy hadn’t advanced the runner to third base right before.
Let’s hope Cora FINALLY gets the team to stop swinging for the fences on every pitch. The only true sluggers they’ve got right now are Abreu and Raffy, they are the only ones who should be trying for homers most of the time.
It’s not just cora unfortunately. It’s organizational philosophy, and, it’s not something breslow brought in with his pitching revamp…
Remember how the pencil pusher reacted to Jim Rice answering a player who approached him and asked him, unsolicited, for advice?
Look at the holdover joint AGMs on that one
GaSox – When Rice is on the pregame and postgame I make it a point to watch, because he speaks his mind (though sometimes hard to understand) and ain’t nobody gonna burst onto the set and try to stop him!
Anyway, just got done listening …. great podcast as always, guys!
With so many Red Sox players having experience at multiple positions, it’s really quite impossible to predict who will play what.
But you’re 100% correct in that getting Anthony on the team should be the top priority. Unfortunately it’s widely believed he’s being held down to prevent him from finishing Top Two in ROY voting, so it’s doubtful he gets called up for at least 2 more weeks. If It was an interpreter, I’d bet he gets called up between June 16th and July 14th. That gives Campbell enough time to take over first base, and Rafaela could make way for Anthony in the outfield by playing middle infield.
As for the weekly Devers discussion, I think you still don’t realize prior to the season Red Sox management told Raffy to put away his glove because he’s too incompetent to even fill in as a fielder for even one game ….. he was flat out told he wouldn’t play the field for any reason, not for a teammate’s day off or as an injury replacement or anything. They refused to allow him to even practice fielding. So why would:
a) Raffy be willing to go back to the field after being insulted like that and
b) Management rip him away from fulltime DH after he has finally mastered it and is raking like never before and
c) The team want a guy back on the field who has never been allowed to learn first base and hasn’t played third base since last August?
It’s completely illogical to not have anything but empathy for Devers.
If he was 17, sure. Plenty of empathy. 28. Yeah. Nah. Man up, Raffy. Things change.
fopp – I think it’s all based on upbringing.
People think Raffy was naive to ever believe what Cora, Kennedy, Henry etc told him …… and he has stated his anger in being deceived by them, and them not keeping their word.
I can totally relate, and that’s why I’ve supported him. I am a man of my word, and I expect the same from others. Certain cultures, you think before you speak and you behave in an ethical, honorable manner.
How would Ortiz have handled it if he was on the receiving end? How about Pedro? Both probably a lot angrier than Raffy.
Ok. I’m not across the cultural aspect. Just looks like he has an immaturity problem to solve. It’s not like they have asked him to pitch the ninth in a tied game. It’s all too precious for me.
fopp – It’s Raffy teaching management about respect and accountability, nothing to do with immaturity. He gained an immense amount of respect for standing up like he did at such a young age.
Fever, I don’t think fenway would have a working phone if you’d say, told Ortiz he was leaving dh to be a platoon 1b I guess might be comprable….heck, I think all the phones in the fens mightve suffered
Fark me. That’s wild, Fever.
GaSox – On Papi’s retirement tour the Orioles gave him a wallphone, he was really unhappy and embarrassed about it.
Same when he was being roasted, Pedroia brought it up.
So at least Papi realizes now what he did was wrong. Better late than never.
Yet just last week cora killed the line to the ‘pen, that thick plastic door broken iirc
GaSox – Yep that’s right, I think that was the same time Buehler got ejected.
“Anyway just got done listening…Anything but empathy for Devers”…I’ll save my “empathy” for disabled children, wounded military veterans and single little old ladies, not overpaid Hollywood celebrity athletes.
What you’re essentially saying is that being paid $300M+ means you’re not flexible, accountable or caring about your teammates or the team. People at McDonald’s, Walmart and Burger King switch positions every day for a LOT less than $300M+.
It’d be amazing if people like you felt this way about ordinary people on Main Street and not just The Hollywood celebrity and Silicon Valley elite. But, we all know that’ll never happen.
Decathlon competitors are considered the greatest athletes in the world and yet they would never win a single event if they competed in any of the 10 events individually. All except Milt Campbell, a record setter at one single event among the 10 he completed. Unheard of. So Devers being a really good hitter doesn’t translate to the field. At all. So what? Yes, there are now 10 players per team. Each of them is good at something. Almost none of them are good at everything. And even the ones that are would very rarely be asked to do something besides what they already do. Yea, blah, blah, blah.
I’m fine with Devers. I did object to when Papi refused to play shortstop, but I got over it.
I thought Stan Papi was a shortstop.
Have you shown your empathy by donating to St. Jude’s and countless other charities out there? Maybe have you honored veterans and advocated for them for their benefits and welfare in society, or honored them on Veterans Day or Memorial Day? Have you visited your local widow and shown her care?
You do know that Devers’ $300M contract was mutually… let me say that again, mutually, (meaning both sides agreed to it, team and player), agreed to that $300M, as a “mlb fan” honestly, you shouldn’t watch baseball anymore.
The sport of cricket is having payroll issues and trouble keeping up with professional franchise payments to their players, maybe try watching that instead of complaining about baseball players.
Bob Nutting is the equivalent of someone who lives in an ultra wealthy neighborhood where the great majority of his net worth is tied up in his home. By all other measures compared to his neighbors he is poor. In this analogy, his neighbors are the other MLB owners, his home is the Pirates.
He bought the team 30 years ago, the economics of MLB have changed exponentially over that time. For context, Pirates were bought in 1996 for $95M, 10 years later the Reds were bought for $270M. His “family business” is newspapers, not exactly a growth business. The Pirates were similar to the Orioles prior to the Angelos family selling, great ballpark, devoted fans and an under capitalized ownership group.
Financing rates are high, there’s labor unrest where betting odds are that more likely than not there’s a work stoppage when current CBA expires on December 1, 2026. Not exactly the time to sell when new ownership doesn’t know the future economic rules. Private equity is now allowed to buy minority interests in teams, he should in the short term sell down some of his 80% interest to better capitalize the team.
Missing from the Giants/Tucker discussion – any consideration of whether an elite FA LH power hitter would ever “truly” consider hitting at Oracle for the rest of their career….
I’m a Giants fan, but I suspect that Tucker’s interest would begin and end with SF just helping to elevate his price.
It’s a pipe dream sure, but Bonds never had a problem there. Will also depend on how they compete this season. We can hope. Would be better if Luciano figures it out and becomes that guy in the outfield.
No such think as making a decision in a vacuum. Trading Skenes isn’t impossible, but it would have to be the proverbial “offer that they can’t refuse.” Really hard to get a player(s) of comparable value. The Pirates have 4 years more of Skenes so they should be trying to build a team around him, not tear it down yet again. Per Forbes, the Pirates have generally been profitable over the years. Not enough that they could spend with the Dodgers or Yankees, but plenty profitable enough to add some decent free agent talent. Plus, Pirates fans are loyal and will come out in droves if and when the team becomes competitive.
And that is the other thing, the fans. Trading Skenes would severely damage what relationship the team does have with its fanbase.