The Pirates are desperately in need of offense to support an excellent young pitching staff. General manager Ben Cherington said yesterday that the front office has “more flexibility than they’ve had in [any] other offseasons” since he was hired going into the 2020 season. That might enable them to make multiple additions from the middle tiers of free agency.
Mark Feinsand of MLB.com reports that the Bucs could commit between $30-40MM to their 2026 payroll. That’s at the higher end of what they’ve spent in previous offseasons. They spent narrowly above $30MM in free agency going into the 2023 and ’24 campaigns. That dropped to roughly $20MM last winter. They haven’t signed a multi-year free agent contract in nearly a decade. Their $10.5MM signing of Aroldis Chapman over the 2023-24 offseason is the only eight-figure free agent deal of the Cherington era.
Pittsburgh offloaded the remaining four years and $36MM on the Ke’Bryan Hayes contract in their deadline trade with Cincinnati. Dealing David Bednar to the Yankees subtracted an arbitration salary that MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects at $9MM. The Bucs have $30.5MM committed to Mitch Keller and Bryan Reynolds next season. They’re likely to spend somewhere between $12-15MM on their arbitration class. They opened this past season with a player payroll around $88MM, so it makes sense that they could add something like $30-40MM. That’d put them a little shy of this past season’s level before accounting for $10-15MM in minimum salary players to round out the roster.
The bigger factor may be whether the Pirates more aggressively pursue free agents on multi-year deals. Cherington told MLBTR’s Darragh McDonald in August that the Bucs have made multi-year offers over the years, but none have been accepted. They haven’t signed a free agent who rejected a qualifying offer since Francisco Liriano in 2014.
It’d register as a surprise if they break that trend for Gleyber Torres or Trent Grisham, though they theoretically have the payroll space to accommodate a three- or four-year deal for one of those players if they wanted to focus most of their resources into one acquisition. Ha-Seong Kim, Luis Arraez, Ryan O’Hearn and Harrison Bader are borderline two- or three-year deal candidates — none of whom was tagged with the QO. Mike Yastrzemski, Cedric Mullins and Max Kepler could sign one-year deals that are towards the higher end of what Pittsburgh has spent in prior offseasons.
It’s also possible the Bucs leverage their starting pitching on the trade market. Dealing Keller would knock another $16.5MM off the books while probably bringing back a mid-tier hitter or two. They could swap Mike Burrows or Thomas Harrington for a similarly controllable bat who has shown some promise. Cherington and his group can look at virtually every position for offensive help. Spencer Horwitz is set for the lion’s share of playing time at first base. Oneil Cruz will be somewhere in the outfield, probably center, while Reynolds is locked into right field. There’s virtually nothing else set in stone, though top prospect Konnor Griffin certainly projects as the long-term answer at shortstop.
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