Buc Meh

The calendar has flipped over to August, which means the non-waiver trade deadline has passed for teams in the MLB.

Meet the new team, same as the old team.  The Pirates jettisoned RP Tony Watson to the Dodgers for two low-level prospects and added Joakim Benoit for a non-prospect.  Meh...

I am going to try to look at this objectively first, then subjectively later.

The pros to this deadline is General Manager Neal Huntington received some value back for Watson, who had struggled all year and was on an expiring contract.  That in itself is pretty impressive, especially after Waston did a pretty good gas can impersonation at times this year.

Huntington held on to CF Andrew McCutchen and SP Gerrit Cole.  IF the Pirates intend to contend next year, those two will be a big reason.  Trading either one of those two would keep in motion the wheels of mediocrity, mainly because you will not find two players within the Pirates’ budget on free agency that would equal their production.

Benoit cost absolutely pennies.  As a veteran, he should be a reliable bullpen guy on the field that may give Rivero, Schugel and some other young call ups some fatherly advice.  He will not be on the books next year which will open a spot in the bullpen, something that the Pirates could use considering how poor it has been at times.

The cons to this deadline is Huntington did nothing to improve the team for this year, or for next year, or for the year after.

Questions still remain at 3B, this year and beyond, RF, bullpen, bench and SP.  That leaves a lot of work, like trying to shave 2 strokes off your golf game type of work, in the off season.  It also means that young players may have to make the jump from the minors to the big club in a year the Pirates have targeted as a contending year.  Unless the Pirates have a minor leaguer that will have the impact like Dodgers OF Cody Bellinger, that is not a good strategy.

The fan backlash is already in full force, simply check out twitter, your facebook account or several other blogs (but only after bookmarking and sharing this blog).  While this may seem like a small issue, attendance is down, tv viewership is down and with TV rights negotiation coming up, that makes the small issue into a major issue.  The Dodgers receive around $260 million a year in local TV, the Pirates are rumored to receive around $25 million a year.  With less eyeballs on the screen, that gap could widen.  Not making moves to better the team will absolutely have an effect on attendance and ratings.

Ok…now the subjective part…

I do not blame Owner Bob Nutting anymore, I blame Huntington.  After the last two trade deadlines, I am of the opinion (just like a**holes, right?) that Huntington is not the man for this job anymore.

Here is my argument, based on the last two deadlines:

He did not make a decision.  He was the gossipy tween that ran between two groups of friends telling them what they wanted to hear.  Huntington sold when he absolutely needed to sell (Watson and Melancon), but he did not sell completely.  He added (Rivero and Benoit) without addressing other, sometimes more pressing, needs.

Had Huntington been in full rebuild mode, McCutchen would have been sold to a team like the Royals, Nats, etc.,C Franciso Cevelli would have been shipped to the Chicago Cubs and Utility Josh Harrison would have been floated to Boston, all teams that were either linked to the players or acquired players of similar positions. Instead Huntington kept McCutchen, Cervelli and Harrison for…well…a run next year?  I do not really know. 

If contending next year was Huntington’s intent, he would have dealt from the prospect hand he holds.  Forget Meadows, since his injury severely hampers his value, but Glasnow, Newman, Tucker, Hayes, etc. all should have been in play. While I admit I was clearly not in the room with Huntington (my evite must be in my spam folder) I think it is fair is to question Huntington’s decision making process. When you add in the millions of dollars saved from not paying Kang and Marte, the Pirates were in a great position to make a deal to fill some glaring holes on this team for this year and beyond.  He did nothing…and make no mistake, trading Glasnow, Newman, Tucker, Hayes, etc. would have cost the ownership nothing…not a cent.  Having the money saved from the Marte/Kang contracts would have been used to eat up some of the “financial flexibility” we gained over the last couple years to pay for any additions. So…

This to me screams these were Huntington’s decisions.  I am not here to say the ownership is a good ownership, they are not, after all they still employ the man I am advocating releasing back into the wild, but when you have little money, you need to spend what currency you have. The Pirates currency is prospects and Huntington chose not to spend.

The Pirates will now enter a year with the face of the franchise in his last year with the last chance to get value for him before he walks and way too many spots open for a team to compete with the Cubs, Dodgers and Nationals.  Huntington had a chance to use assets to either set the team up for the future or to make a run now, he chose neither.  He chose being a gossipy tween.