By Chris Mueller
March 13, 2018
Colin Moran
Jake Arrieta finally signed, in case you missed it.
Arrieta, once thought to be a guy who would cash in for a huge free agency payday, inked a deal with the Phillies for $75 million over three seasons. Great money, sure, and a great rate, but still not the overwhelming, knock your socks off, “are you kidding me” return that some felt he would command.
Mike Moustakas, who declined a qualifying offer for the Royals coming off of a 38-home-run year, found no serious suitors in the open market and ended up coming back to the team for just north of $6 million dollars for one season — a cut of about $11 million from what his qualifying offer was.
This hasn’t been a “normal” off season in baseball. Free agents aren’t getting paid like they usually do. Teams are being more cautious with their dollars, especially for guys whose age is seen as a primary concern.
Still, players are getting contracts. The market didn’t dry up completely. Only one team failed to sign a single major-league free agent this year. Can you guess which team that is?
If you said, “the Pittsburgh Pirates, Chris,” congratulations, you can come and claim your prize at any time. Moustakas, who may have come to the Pirates for a very affordable rate, and would have, at least for one year, plugged a hole at third base, was not pursued. Instead, the Pirates traded away Gerrit Cole to Houston, gaining Colin Moran in the process.
There is no good reason why the Pirates, if they feel they are poised to contend this year, needed to give away Cole to acquire a third baseman. To hear the team tell it, they’re tantalized by Moran’s bat, but also by the years of team control they have with him.
The same story applies to Joe Musgrove, who the organization apparently projects as a starter, and a good one — again, that’s the opinion of the team, not necessarily pundits. The Pirates have control of him for several seasons, and at a low cost. The idea of buying established starting pitching seems like it was a foreign concept, something barely considered, if at all.
This was the team’s behavior during one of the softest winters for free agents in recent memory. One might be inclined to say that a team that felt it was close to contention would look to exploit the market and sign useful players for a bargain rate, without having to commit several worrisome years to them.
The Pirates did nothing of the sort. They traded away Andrew McCutchen, they traded away Gerrit Cole, and they stood by the idea that players acquired in those deals would help the team this year. They might be right about that.
Then again, they might not. They might struggle in an effort to compete for even a wild card berth. They might have passed on their chance to sign some bona fide, proven performers to downright reasonable deals in the one off-season in which the playing field as far as free agency seemed more level than ever.
This is a team that, in three excellent seasons, never went financially beyond their comfort zone to compete. They made shrewd moves, but they never pushed themselves to a point where any observer would say, “Yes, the Pirates have spent to their absolute upper limit.”
Despite that, the team has shed some of its biggest financial commitments in the name of promoting a youth movement. One reason, given by Neal Huntington on 93.7 The Fan, centered on not feeling like the team from last season was good enough to warrant a free agent talent infusion. That’s curious, given that, in the same interview, he spoke fondly of the team’s chances to surprise people this season.
The team can say whatever it wants, can explain their inaction however they’d like. One thing seems inarguable: the Pirates had a chance to make some real improvements to the team in free agency this year. They did nothing, and that alone speaks volumes.
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