Nutting’s Pirates always about the money
Three thoughts on the Pirates:
1. Money, money, money
The late-night text message came from a veteran Pirates player last weekend.
“Does it always have to be about the money? ALWAYS?”
The text was sent about an hour after the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review’s Rob Biertempfel reported that ace pitcher Gerrit Cole had been threatened to have his salary cut to the major league minimum of $507,500 when contract talks with the Pirates reached an impasse.
Teams have the right under the terms of the collective bargaining agreement to pay players with less than three years of major league service time whatever they desire. The pendulum then swings in the players’ favor after three years when they gain the right to go to a salary arbitration hearing then eventually earn free agency rights at six years.
So the Pirates would have been playing with the rules if they cut Cole’s salary. After the story came out, though, the Pirates backpedaled faster than Darrelle Revis.
The Pirates said they had made a mistake when applying their formula used to determine salaries for non-arbitration player salaries, forgetting they had paid Cole a $10,000 bonus as part of his 2015 contract for being selected to the All-Star Game, and that created a mix up.
The Pirates initially offered Cole a $538,000 contract, which was a $7,000 increase over his base salary last year. According to general manager Neal Huntington, that was a franchise-record raise for a player with only two-plus years of service time.
However, Cole’s total earnings last season were $541,000 because of the bonus.
The team raised Cole’s salary for this season to $541,000 after recognizing its error. When Cole asked for more in order to put him over last season’s earnings, the Pirates said no.
Yes, Cole received an $8-million signing bonus in 2011 when the Pirates chose him first overall in the amateur draft. And he is undoubtedly in line for monster paydays down the road if he continues his current career arc, likely in a bigger market than Pittsburgh.
Still, why nickel and dime your best pitcher over such a pittance?
Because these are Bob Nutting’s Pirates and, regardless of how much they win and how many fans they draw, it is always about the money.
ALWAYS.
2. New kid on the Block
The Pirates absolutely got it right when they hired Joe Block away from the Milwaukee Brewers’ broadcast crew last month to take the place of play-by-play man Tim Neverett, who is now in the big time with the Boston Red Sox.
Block has transitioned seamlessly into the job after just a few Grapefruit League broadcasts. He has a great conversational style, meshes well with his color commentators and is easy on the ears.
The only downside is, even though he is married to a Western Pennsylvania girl, Block is so good that he might not stick around Pittsburgh for very long. With his talent, it might not be long before he follows Neverett to better things.
3. The Doctor is in
It was fun to listen to legendary hockey broadcaster Mike “Doc” Emrick call part of the Pirates’ game with the Toronto Blue Jays on the radio Thursday. His love of the Pirates is well-documented and he drops in references about them on every national NHL telecast on NBC.
You could hear the thrill in the voice as he called the action.