Jared Wickerham/Getty ImagesIf you've ever wondered why the Pittsburgh Pirates have been mostly forgettable in the 17 years since Bob Nutting took over as principal owner of the franchise, there's a very good explanation for it.
One former instructor described a situation where Nutting waited one day to execute a trade because it would save the team a small amount of money relative to a professional sports franchise.
"I've been in some meetings where my jaw dropped because we had to wait a day to trade a guy because it was going to save us $30,000," the former instructor said. "I was like, 'Oh my God, I can't believe I'm hearing this.' This is a $10 billion industry."
This doesn't seem to be something unique to the Pirates. It's not a secret that there are several teams across Major League Baseball that are owned by someone who doesn't seem interested in investing in the product.
CBS Sports' Dayn Perry wrote an article in 2019 breaking down the ways small-market teams drum up excuses not to spend money, despite evidence that their reasons don't hold up to scrutiny.
It's even happening with big-market clubs that should have no problem spending like the Los Angeles Dodgers are right now. Rafael Devers seemed to take a shot at the front office for the Boston Red Sox for their inactivity this offseason.
"They need to make an adjustment to help us players to be in a better position to win," he said through an interpreter Tuesday. "Everybody in this organization wants to win. We, as [players], want to win. I think they need to make an adjustment to help us win. I'm not saying that the team is not OK right now, but they need to be conscious of what are the [weaknesses] and what we need.
Chicago Cubs owner Tom Ricketts lamented his team's lack of revenue as the reason they haven't spent more to improve the roster this offseason. They had the fifth-highest operating income in MLB ($57.2 million) from the 2022 season.
The Pirates are a special case because they had been largely irrelevant even before Nutting bought the franchise.
Since Barry Bonds left Pittsburgh to sign with the San Francisco Giants after the 1992 season, the Pirates have had four winning seasons. They made the playoffs in three consecutive years from 2013 to '15.
Those Pirates teams had a core group that included Andrew McCutchen, Gerrit Cole, Starling Marte, Francisco Liriano, J.A. Happ, A.J. Burnett and Charlie Morton.
Rather than double down by investing in talent around that roster, the Pirates traded Morton and allowed Happ and Burnett to leave as free agents. Pedro Álvarez, who led the team with 27 homers in 2015, was non-tendered.
The 2016 team won 20 fewer games (78) than the 2015 squad. They haven't finished higher than fourth in the NL Central since 2017. The Pirates have yet to run a $100 million payroll in a season, with 2015 being the closest they came to hitting that mark ($99.95 million).
The Pirates' $67.6 million payroll going into this season is ahead of only the Oakland Athletics ($45.5 million). No other team in MLB has a payroll under $80 million.
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