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Pirates Showing Interest In Noah Syndergaard

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The Pirates are among multiple teams that have expressed interest in free agent righty Noah Syndergaard, reports Robert Murray of FanSided. According to Murray, both Syndergaard and right-hander Michael Lorenzen threw a bullpen session in front of teams today.

While it’s unclear which teams are involved in Lorenzen’s market, Pittsburgh is apparently considering Syndergaard as a rebound target. He’ll certainly settle for a one-year contract for a third straight offseason. After locking in a $21MM guarantee from the Angels in 2021-22 and a $13MM pact from the Dodgers last winter, he’s looking at a cheaper deal this time around.

That’s a reflection of Syndergaard’s trouble finding his form since he returned from Tommy John surgery. He underwent the elbow procedure in March 2020, essentially wiping out two seasons. During his first year back, he turned in a 3.94 ERA over 25 appearances for the Halos. While that’s decent run prevention, the righty wasn’t nearly as overpowering as he’d been before the surgery. He fanned just 16.8% of opposing hitters, nearly eight percentage points below his 2019 mark.

The Dodgers hoped that Syndergaard would rediscover that level in his second year after surgery. Instead, the lack of missed bats caught up to him. He was tagged for a 7.16 ERA over 12 starts in Los Angeles. The Dodgers placed him on the injured list and flipped him to the Guardians in a change-of-scenery swap that sent infielder Amed Rosario to Southern California.

Things didn’t get much better in Cleveland. Syndergaard returned from the IL to start six games. He pitched to a 5.40 ERA while allowing 10 home runs in 33 1/3 innings. The Guardians released him at the end of August. He didn’t sign elsewhere and finished his year with a 6.50 ERA across 88 2/3 frames. His 14.3% strikeout percentage and 8.2% swinging strike rate were each personal lows, while he allowed a career-worst 2.23 home runs per nine innings. Once one of the sport’s hardest throwers, the righty has lost a lot of velocity in recent seasons. His fastball was down around 92 MPH on average last year.

Syndergaard is still just 31 years old, so it stands to reason some clubs have optimism about helping him rediscover some of that lost arm speed. He has excellent control and has walked fewer than 6% of opposing hitters in each of the past two seasons. If he can even find the 93-94 MPH he brandished in 2022, he’d be a potential back-of-the-rotation starter.

The Pirates would benefit from that kind of production. Pittsburgh’s rotation is led by Mitch Keller. They’ve already targeted Martín Pérez and Marco Gonzales as rebound fliers, while players like Luis Ortiz, Bailey Falter, Roansy Contreras and Quinn Priester could vie for back-end jobs.

Pittsburgh’s signing of Aroldis Chapman pushes their projected player payroll to roughly $79MM, above last year’s $73MM Opening Day figure. It’s unclear how much budgetary room remains at the front office’s disposal.

Pirates To Sign Aroldis Chapman

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The Pirates are in agreement with Aroldis Chapman, as first reported by Francys Romero (X link). It’s a one-year, $10.5MM guarantee, reports Joel Sherman of the New York Post (on X). Chapman is a Wasserman client. The deal is pending a physical; Pittsburgh will need to make a corresponding 40-man roster move once the contract is finalized.

Chapman, who turns 36 next month, lands a one-year free agent deal for the second straight offseason. Limited to a fairly modest $3.75MM guarantee from the Royals a year ago, he lands a raise on the heels of an impressive season that culminated in his second World Series win. Chapman turned in a 3.09 ERA over 58 1/3 innings, striking out a laughable 41.4% of opposing hitters. Among relievers with 50+ innings, only Orioles star closer Félix Bautista punched hitters out more frequently.

The lefty split his year between two teams. He turned in dominant results for three months in Kansas City. Over 29 2/3 frames with the Royals, he pitched to a 2.45 ERA with a 43.4% strikeout rate. That production and his affordable salary made Chapman arguably the top rental reliever on the trade market. K.C. moved early, sending him to the Rangers in a one-for-one deal for former first-round pick Cole Ragans at the end of June.

It’s the kind of result that rebuilding teams envision when signing a veteran to a one-year deal. Ragans had an excellent 12-start run to close the year and looks like a potential mid-rotation or better pitcher whom Kansas City controls for five more seasons. Texas knew they were getting a short-term acquisition, but Chapman provided them a much needed high-leverage bullpen arm.

Over 29 regular season innings in Arlington, he posted a 3.72 ERA while fanning nearly 40% of batters faced. Chapman saved four games and picked up six holds in front of nominal closer José Leclerc. He continued to pitch in meaningful games during the Rangers’ run to the first title in franchise history. He picked up six more holds in nine playoff appearances, totaling eight innings of two-run ball. That came with only six strikeouts and five walks, but Chapman wiggled out of trouble more often than not in October.

It was frequently an adventure when Chapman took the mound. While he has never had great command, his control has reached particularly worrisome levels over the last three years. He walked 14.5% of batters faced last year, the fifth-highest rate among pitchers to log at least 50 innings. That was nevertheless the southpaw’s lowest walk percentage since 2020.

While Chapman is going to hand out his share of free baserunners, he remains one of the sport’s toughest pitchers to hit when he’s around the strike zone. His four-seam fastball averaged 99 MPH last year, while his sinker sat above 101 MPH. That’s above the 97.5 MPH he averaged on the four-seam during his final season with the Yankees. His slider, which had averaged between 85-86 MPH for the previous few years, jumped to 88.1 MPH. That high-octane arsenal translated to plenty of whiffs. Only Robert Stephenson and Bautista had a lower opponents’ contact rate. Hitters put the bat on the ball on only three-fifths of their swings against Chapman.

The Bucs will live with the free passes to add that kind of swing-and-miss potential to the back of their bullpen. David Bednar is entrenched in the ninth inning. Chapman will work in a setup capacity with the ability to step into the ninth should Bednar suffer an injury. He joins Ryan Borucki as left-handed bullpen options for skipper Derek Shelton. Colin Holderman projects as Pittsburgh’s top righty setup arm.

MLBTR predicted Chapman to receive a two-year, $24MM pact. He’ll instead settle for one season. The $10.5MM salary makes him the highest-paid player on the Pittsburgh roster this year (after accounting for cash considerations from the Mariners and Braves paying down Marco Gonzales’ $12MM deal). He’s the fourth player to ink a one-year free agent deal with the Pirates this winter, joining Martín Pérez, Andrew McCutchen and Rowdy Tellez.

The deal brings Pittsburgh’s projected player payroll around $79MM, as calculated by Roster Resource. The low-payroll club opened last season with roughly $73MM in commitments, per Cot’s Baseball Contracts. They’re now set to raise spending this year, as GM Ben Cherington suggested at the beginning of the offseason, although it remains to be seen if the front office has any more room at its disposal. Pittsburgh could still seek rotation help and potentially a veteran option at second base, where they have a handful of young players (e.g. Liover Peguero, Nick Gonzales, Ji Hwan Bae) set to compete for at-bats.

Owner Bob Nutting suggested over the weekend he anticipated the team staying in the playoff mix for the entire season. Pittsburgh hasn’t reached the postseason since 2015 and hasn’t advanced to the Division Series in a decade. If that doesn’t materialize, Chapman could find himself on the rental trade market for a second straight summer.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Pirates Owner Bob Nutting Aiming For “Contention Throughout The Season”

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The Pirates last reached the playoffs in 2015 and haven’t had a winning season since 2018, as the team embarked on a long rebuild process that might be slowly approaching the end.  Through a lengthy downturn in the middle of the season sunk Pittsburgh’s chances in 2023, the team played well at both the very start and very end of the year to deliver a 76-86 record — the Bucs’ highest win total since their 82 wins in 2018.  The Pirates also avoided the NL Central basement for the second consecutive year, as the Cardinals surprisingly tumbled to last place.

On paper, the Buccos still seem a few pieces away from at least a couple of division rivals, and in the National League as a whole when it comes to a push for a wild card spot.  However, given the lack of certainty within the division and some of the young talent on Pittsburgh’s roster, it wouldn’t be the biggest shock if the Pirates are closer than we might think to being legitimate contenders in 2024.

This is the view of Pirates owner Bob Nutting, who told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Jason Mackey that he was “very enthusiastic to see another step forward” for his team.

“I’m not gonna pick a number of games or wins, but for the first time in what feels like a decade and maybe on the calendar is 6-7 years, we’re within striking distance of a good team.  We’re short of that still, but the progression is clearly going in the right direction.  My expectation is we take another meaningful step forward [in 2024].  With the current playoff system, another step forward means we can be in contention throughout the season.  That’s a minimum expectation we should have and one we should be building on.”

Bryan Reynolds, Ke’Bryan Hayes, Jack Suwinski, Mitch Keller, and David Bednar have become building blocks, while such former top prospects as Oneil Cruz and Henry Davis are viewed as cornerstone players once they receive more seasoning at the Major League level.  Losing another key prospect in Endy Rodriguez for all of 2024 is a blow, yet some other top minor leaguers might soon be emerging as the next wave of talent, including 2023 first overall draft pick Paul Skenes if he continues his rapid rise up the ladder.

Andrew McCutchen was re-signed as the veteran leader and face of the franchise, and the Pirates have looked to add more experience by acquiring the likes of Rowdy Tellez, Marco Gonzales, and Martin Perez.  The latter two in particular are needed additions to a thin pitching staff that got even thinner this offseason when Johan Oviedo was lost to Tommy John surgery.

The reinforcements aren’t exactly rock-solid, given how Tellez, Gonzales, and Perez were all either ineffective or injured during the 2023 season.  In fact, in adding this group of veterans but losing Oviedo and Rodriguez, it can be argued that the Pirates haven’t really much advanced their talent level, considering that McCutchen was already on the team last season.

Nutting is “very pleased with what Ben’s getting done” to date, one of a few instances where Nutting praised the work of GM Ben Cherington.  That said, Nutting also noted that “I wish we were further along in this offseason than we are.  I’ve seen how hard Ben has pushed.  I’ve seen how close we’ve gotten to some deals.  But we’re only halfway through.  I think there’s still time.  There’s still a lot of work to be done.  I think Ben understands the expectations.”

Of course, Pittsburgh fans might certainly observe that Cherington could do more to restock the roster if he had more financial support.  Since Nutting bought the team in 2007, the Bucs have regularly been at or near the bottom of the league when it comes to payroll, and have only once (in 2016) finished as high as 20th in Opening Day payroll.  Cherington said in December that the Pirates were going to raise their spending level from 2023 to 2024, and Nutting reiterated to Mackey that Cherington “has room to make moves that we need to make,” even if the owner didn’t specify any exact dollar figure.

In modest fashion, the Pirates are on pace to indeed surpass last year’s spending levels, considering that most moves still need to be made to upgrade the roster.  Pittsburgh had a $73.27MM Opening Day payroll in 2023 and Roster Resource projects their current 2024 payroll at around $69.2MM, so one more significant signing could alone put the Pirates well over last year’s mark.

Considering how the Pirates have been linked to such names as Shota Imanaga, Yariel Rodriguez, and Jack Flaherty, the Bucs seem to be willing to stretch the budget a bit further than usual to make a somewhat bigger-ticket expenditure.  It can be assumed that the Pirates won’t yet break the bank for a Jordan Montgomery or Blake Snell, but such second-tier names as Mike Clevinger, Hyun Jin Ryu, James Paxton, and other remain on the open market.  Several more options exist in possible trades, though Nutting seemed to caution against the idea that Pittsburgh would deal significant prospects at this point in their rebuild.

“We need to make the team better now and make sure that we’re not mortgaging the future going forward, [and] that we’re not making decisions where we’re giving up so much talent in a trade that we end up watching former pitchers thrive elsewhere,” Nutting said.

MLBTR Podcast: The Cubs’ Activity, Marcus Stroman And Jordan Hicks

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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 Tim Dierkes of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss…

Plus, we answer your questions, including…

  • Ben Cherington of the Pirates has repeatedly said that he would be active in the market for another starting pitcher and another outfielder. With Spring Training starting in about one month, has he given up on this quest? (25:35)
  • Why do general managers not come out and say reports are B.S.? Use the Jays as example. They are not interested in Blake Snell but their name gets thrown in for leverage. Should GMs step in and say this report is false? The endless number of sources is ridiculous and leads nowhere except larger pay days or trade hauls because of fake competition. (27:30)
  • I think most of the baseball world is getting really sick of the Dodgers and Yankees buying all the major names. It’s terrible for parity and makes for season after season of “wash, rinse, repeat” storylines. Is the league ever going to enact a salary cap? It’s done great things for the other three major sports leagues. What is the reason for the resistance to it? (31:40)

Check out our past episodes!

The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff.  Check out their Facebook page here!

Mets Designate Cooper Hummel For Assignment

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The Mets designated catcher/outfielder Cooper Hummel for assignment, as first reported by Anthony DiComo of MLB.com. The Mets announced the move a couple minutes later. Hummel’s spot on the 40-man roster will go to righty Max Kranick, whom the Mets are claiming off waivers from the Pirates.

Hummel, 29, was claimed off waivers from the Mariners earlier in the offseason. He appeared in 10 MLB games last year and came to the plate 26 times with Seattle. He also received a brief look with the D-backs in 2022, and he’s posted an overall .166/.264/.286 line in 227 career plate appearances.

Ugly as that small-sample slash line may be, Hummel turned in a .262/.409/.435 batting line in Triple-A last year and drew walks at a massive 18% clip. The Mets were surely attracted to that output and to his versatility; he’s logged more than 1800 innings in left field, 1054 frames behind the plate, 508 innings at first base and another 296 innings in right field. Add in that he has a minor league option remaining, and he’s an interesting depth piece even if he hasn’t yet been able to produce at the big league level.

Hummel is also a known commodity for Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns, who was the Brewers’ general manager in 2016 when Hummel was drafted by Milwaukee. Stearns traded Hummel to the D-backs in the 2021 Eduardo Escobar swap, and he’ll now have a week to trade Hummel again or else attempt to pass him through outright waivers.

Mets Claim Max Kranick From Pirates

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The Mets have claimed right-hander Max Kranick off waivers from the Pirates, reports Mark Feinsand of MLB.com. The righty was designated for assignment by the Bucs a week ago when they needed a roster spot to sign Martín Pérez. The Mets have a full roster and will need to make a corresponding move for Kranick, and will need to open another when they make their signing of Sean Manaea official.

Kranick, 26, will now join just the second organization of his career. He was drafted by the Pirates and has been a part of that organization until this transaction. He made his major league debut with nine starts in 2021, posting a 6.28 earned run average in 38 2/3 innings. He made two relief appearances for the club in 2022 but required Tommy John surgery in June of that year, wiping out the rest of the season and most of 2023. He was healthy enough to return to the mound late in 2023, making a few minor league starts in August and September.

There’s obviously not much major league track record to go on and the surgery has prevented him from pitching meaningful innings in the minors of late. But he has thrown 344 1/3 innings on the farm overall with a 3.55 ERA. He has only struck out 19.5% of minor league hitters but has only given out walks at a modest 6.2% clip.

He is now out of options, which suggest the Mets are either planning to keep him on their active roster or will attempt to run him through waivers in the future. The Mets already have a rotation composed of Manaea, Luis Severino, Kodai Senga, José Quintana and Adrian Houser, with Tylor Megill and Joey Lucchesi on hand as optionable depth. David Peterson will be in the mix once he recovers from his hip surgery. Given that rotation picture, perhaps the Mets will keep Kranick in the bullpen and see if he can find some extra strikeouts with his stuff playing up in shorter stints.

The Mets are taking something of a step back this year and have limited themselves to fairly modest moves. Manaea got a two-year deal but with an opt-out after the first season. Severino got a one-year deal, as did Harrison Bader, Joey Wendle, Jorge López, Austin Adams and Michael Tonkin. The club has also claimed Penn Murfee, Zack Short, Tyler Heineman and Cooper Hummel and now Kranick off waivers.

Taken together, those moves have filled out the pitching staff and bench as the club will look to go into 2024 with more depth. Perhaps that will help them avoid the pitfalls they fell into last year when a batch of injuries knocked them out contention, or perhaps it will simply allow someone in that batch to break out and take a step forward this year. If the club falls out of contention again and winds up engaging in another deadline selloff, they can give some extra innings or plate appearances to someone showing signs of development.

Pirates Sign Sergio Alcantara To Minor League Deal

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The Pirates announced Thursday that they’ve signed infielder Sergio Alcantara and righty Hunter Stratton to minor league deals and invited them to spring training. They’re two of a slate of eight NRIs announced by Pittsburgh today, although the other six — outfielders Gilberto Celestino and Billy McKinney, righties Ben Heller and Ryder Ryan, infielder Jake Lamb, lefty Michael Plassmeyer — have all been previously reported.

Alcantara, 27, has appeared in three big league seasons, spending time with the Tigers, Cubs, Padres and Diamondbacks. He’s a career .209/.281/.343 hitter in 502 MLB plate appearances and carries a .275/.389/.412 slash in a comparable amount of playing time at the Triple-A level. Alcantara is an above-average runner with a plus glove and arm at shortstop, but his sub-par track record at the plate leaves plenty to be desired. He’s played shortstop, third base and second base in his limited big league career to date and will give the Bucs some depth all around their infield.

Stratton, 27, was the Pirates’ 16th-round pick back in 2017. He made his MLB debut this past season and pitched well in a small sample, holding opponents to three runs on nine hits and three walks with 10 punchouts in a dozen innings of work. Pittsburgh non-tendered him earlier this winter.

Stratton has long demonstrated worrying command issues in the minor leagues, however, and those were on full display again in 2023. Stratton notched a solid 3.99 ERA with a hefty 30.6% strikeout rate in 56 1/3 Triple-A frames, but that was accompanied by a 12.8% walk rate. He’s never posted a single-season walk rate south of 11.8% and has issued a free pass to 13.1% of the opponents he’s faced as a professional. Add in 24 hit batters in his career, and nearly 16% of Stratton’s opponents have reached base without needing to put a ball in play. Stratton throws hard, sitting just shy of 96 mph with his heater, and can clearly miss bats in bunches, but he’ll likely need to improve his command to carve out a longer look at the MLB level.

Pirates Showed Interest In Shota Imanaga

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Shota Imanaga’s 45-day posting window closes today, meaning the Cubs will likely announce his reported four-year contract in the near future. It’s known that the Chicago outbid a field of interested parties including at least the Giants, Angels and Red Sox, although multiple reports in the final days of Imanaga’s free agency suggested there were as many as five teams in the mix. ESPN’s Jesse Rogers now reports that the Pirates showed interest in the star NPB left-hander — a surprise entrant into the Imanaga market for a number of reasons.

On the one hand, word of interest that didn’t materialize in a deal can be waved off by many as inconsequential. Imanaga is headed to the Cubs, and he’ll spend anywhere from two to five seasons there, thanks to the complex nature of his contract. (Four years are guaranteed, but he has multiple opt-out chances and the Cubs can supersede those by picking up a fifth-year option after the 2025 season.) What’s done is done. Imanaga is not and will not be a member of the Pirates.

On the other, the Pirates are a genuinely surprising entrant into the Imanaga bidding. Signing him would’ve required the Bucs to commit the largest contract they’ve ever given to a pitcher; Francisco Liriano’s $39MM pact currently holds that distinction. That’s interesting in and of itself, but it’s also further intriguing in that their reported interest now makes it worth wondering whether the Bucs might have a bit more money to spend than most would’ve assumed. And, if that’s the case, it’s fair to consider that perhaps they’d be in play for other middle-tier starters who remain unsigned. The likes of Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery still figure to be well beyond the Pirates’ price range, but there are still a few notable arms in the next tier down — Marcus Stroman, James Paxton, Michael Lorenzen, Hyun Jin Ryu and Cuban righty Yariel Rodriguez (who’s spent the past several seasons starring in NPB) among them.

Thus far, the Pirates have added lefties Martin Perez (one year, $8MM) and Marco Gonzales (acquired from the Braves for a PTBNL) to their rotation behind Mitch Keller. With right-hander Johan Oviedo undergoing Tommy John surgery earlier this offseason, however, there’s greater need beyond that trio — especially considering Gonzales’ own injury troubles this past season. Former top prospect Roansy Contreras took a step back in 2023 after a more promising 2022 showing, while prospect Quinn Priester had a rocky debut in 2023.

The Pirates will get righty JT Brubaker back from his own Tommy John procedure this year, but he’ll surely be eased back into the fold and will be on some level of innings limit. Right-hander Luis Ortiz and southpaw Bailey Falter are among the team’s other options in the rotation, and 2023 No. 1 overall pick Paul Skenes could make his MLB debut during the summer of 2024. That all gives the Bucs some depth, but with at least two rotation spots still in flux, there’s room for another arm to be added.

It’s possible that the Pirates viewed Imanaga as an exception of sorts, and that their interest in him will go down as little more than a footnote. It remains unclear, after all, whether they pursued him with any level of aggression or whether they were hoping to land him on a shorter-term pact that falls well shy of where he ultimately landed with the Cubs.

If the Bucs fill out their rotation internally or make another budget pickup to stuff some low-upside innings into their starting staff, the interest in Imanaga will quickly be forgotten. But it’s nevertheless interesting to see Pittsburgh punching north of its typical weight class in free agency. General manager Ben Cherington indicated earlier this offseason that the team’s payroll can be expected to increase — although last year’s $73MM Opening Day mark is quite a low bar to clear. The Bucs currently project for a payroll of about $70MM, per Roster Resource.

Pirates, JT Brubaker Avoid Arbitration

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The Pirates and right-hander JT Brubaker have avoided arbitration, per Connor Williams of the Talk the Plank Podcast. Brubaker will make $2.275MM this year, per Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Friday is the deadline for clubs and arbitration-eligible players to submit salary figures, with hearings set to take place in late January. Many cases will be resolved as that deadline approaches, such as this one.

Brubaker, now 30, pitched 315 2/3 innings for the Pirates from 2020 to 2022. He had a 4.99 earned run average in that time, along with a 23.3% strikeout rate, 7.8% walk rate and 44% ground ball rate. He qualified for arbitration for 2023 and made a salary of $2.275MM last year.

Unfortunately, it was a totally lost year for the righty. He had some elbow/forearm discomfort in the spring and eventually underwent Tommy John surgery in mid-April, missing the entire season. That has led him to have the same salary in 2024 as he did last year.

He will likely start 2024 on the injured list and could return at some point in the middle of the season. The Pittsburgh rotation currently projects to feature Mitch Keller, Marco Gonzales and Martín Pérez, with guys like Bailey Falter, Luis Ortiz, Roansy Contreras, Quinn Priester, Jackson Wolf and Paul Skenes in competition for spots at the back end. Brubaker will jump into that mix whenever he’s healthy. He can be retained via arbitration for one more season before he’s slated for free agency after 2025.

Pirates Notes: Cherington, Payroll, Cruz, Keller

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Several Pirates players and executives are in attendance at the team’s PiratesFest fan event in Pittsburgh this weekend, which acts as something of a midway point in the Bucs’ offseason.  As such, GM Ben Cherington, team president Travis Williams, and manager Derek Shelton took part in a Q&A with fans today, and the group shared some tidbits on further winter plans with fans and media (including Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette).

Cherington made it clear that the Pirates’ offseason work is far from over, stating “We’re engaged on a number of fronts, and certainly my hope is that there’s going to be more happening between now and Spring Training.”  Though Cherington naturally didn’t cite any specific players of interest, recent reports have linked the Pirates to such players as Carlos Santana, Michael A. Taylor, Adam Frazier, and a likely far more expensive target in Yariel Rodriguez.

With Martin Perez and Marco Gonzales already added to the rotation mix, Rodriguez would be the biggest boost yet to a starting staff that still has plenty of question marks, considering that Perez lost his spot in the Rangers rotation last year and Gonzales struggled through 50 innings in a injury-shortened season.  Cherington made it clear that the Bucs are still looking for more pitching help, and that the team had offered some multi-year contracts to free agent arms.

This represents a bit more aggressiveness than usual for the Pirates, who haven’t signed any free agents to multi-year deals since 2016 — almost three full years before Cherington even took over the front office to oversee a major rebuild.  Pittsburgh’s 76-86 record in 2023 represented the club’s highest win total since 2018, and between some burgeoning younger talent and the unsettled nature of the NL Central, there is some hope within the organization that it can fully turn the corner in 2024.

“Our goal was to play playoff games in October,” Shelton said bluntly.  “Whether that’s winning the Central, which is definitely the goal, or being a playoff caliber team, that’s something we’re striving for.  And I will be very clear in our first message in Bradenton [at Spring Training] in about a month that we should be thinking about that every day.”

Roster Resource currently projects the Buccos to have a $70.37MM payroll in 2024, slightly less than their approximate $73.28MM Opening Day payroll from last season.  Since Cherington is on record as saying that the Pirates will increase their payroll, it remains to be seen exactly how much the team is willing or able to spend for further upgrades.  It does appear that the Pirates should exceed their 2023 figure in some way, especially since some clear roster holes needs to be addressed if Pittsburgh is to achieve its goal of being postseason contenders.

With broadcasting revenue such a major topic of conversation this offseason, the Pirates’ recent deal for a co-ownership stake in the SportsNet Pittsburgh network won’t be impacting the team’s ability to spend, Williams reiterated.  “We’re not changing our plan, not changing our payroll.  We’re committed to our plan, and we’re going to stick to it,” the team president said.

That said, Williams also seemed to stay away from any specifics about spending in general, and noted that “I’d say that payroll, while important, is not the most important factor in terms of how we get to building a championship-caliber team for our fans.”  Williams claimed that the Pirates are one of baseball’s top five teams in terms of developmental spending, which Mackey notes is a difficult claim to verify or gauge with any accuracy, though it could be true given Cherington’s overhaul of the minor league pipeline.

“We’re putting all of our revenues back into the ball club,” Williams said.  “We’re trying to get better every day and investing in areas where we’re gonna get better every day….We’re doing all the right things to win for Pittsburgh.  We also want to make this work within the economics of baseball.”

A full and healthy season from Oneil Cruz would go a long way towards making the Pirates better in 2024, after the star prospect missed almost the entire season due to ankle surgery.  Cruz told reporters (including Justin Guerriero of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review) that he is now fully recovered following a summer setback in his rehab process.  “Everything’s like it’s supposed to be….Now that I feel 100% again, just go out there like I do every year and give my 100% out there and be ready from Day 1,” Cruz said.

There had been some consideration given to Cruz participating in the Dominican Winter League in order to help him ramp up his readiness heading into Spring Training, but the Pirates have instead been limiting him to instructional league games in the Dominican Republic.  Given how the Bucs already lost Endy Rodriguez to a torn UCL while playing DWL ball last month, it isn’t surprising that the team is being extra cautious with Cruz.

In other Pirates news, the team has yet to start any extension negotiations with Mitch Keller, as the right-hander himself told Mackey.  This doesn’t mean that talks won’t eventually happen, and Keller feels a meeting “would probably be around Spring Training again like it was last year.”

Those earlier talks obviously didn’t lead anywhere, nor did some follow-up negotiations that reportedly took place during the season.  In the interim, Keller delivered an All-Star season that saw him post a 4.21 ERA over 194 1/3 innings, though he was much more effective in the first half of the season.  With this in mind, Keller is planning to make some adjustments to his preparation for next year, noting “maybe you need to change a little bit with recovery or mid-week lifts, bullpens and cut some out here and there, just so I’m feeling good toward the end or middle of the season.  Just learning from how to handle a load like that.”

Keller is projected to earn a $6MM salary in 2024, his second year of arbitration eligibility.  Since he is slated for free agency after the 2025 season, there is still a considerable amount of time left for the two sides to potentially reach an agreement on a long-term deal.  Ke’Bryan Hayes and Bryan Reynolds both finalized extensions with Pittsburgh in each of the last two Aprils, and locking up Keller would represent yet another core piece being added to what the Pirates hope is the nucleus of their next winning team.

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