The Pirates’ signing of Carlos Santana was in part driven by the team’s belief that next year’s restriction on infield shifts will help to boost the veteran switch-hitter’s production, general manager Ben Cherington told reporters after finalizing the deal this week (link via Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette). Beyond that, Santana’s reputation as a leader and mentor for younger players appealed to the club, as did a strong batted-ball profile that featured quality marks in metrics like average exit velocity, hard-hit rate and more.
At one year and $6.725MM, the Santana signing was somewhat remarkably the largest free-agent commitment given out by Cherington since he was hired to guide the Pirates’ latest rebuilding effort back in 2019. Cherington stressed there are other needs to address and that the Pirates, currently projected by Roster Resource to carry just a $54MM payroll, are hopeful of completing some additional deals.
A few more items out of the National League…
- The Reds inked local product Luke Maile to a one-year contract, setting the stage for him to serve as Tyler Stephenson’s backup. However, general manager Nick Krall suggested after signing Maile the team isn’t closed off to the possibility of adding a third catcher to the big league roster (link via Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer). “There is a chance,” Krall noted, pointing out that the addition of the universal designated hitter gives teams the flexibility to more easily work with three backstops. The Reds were reportedly in touch with Tucker Barnhart about a potential reunion before signing Maile, though there’s no indication they’re strongly pursuing him after coming to terms with Maile. Still, Stephenson missed significant time in 2022 with a broken thumb, a concussion and a broken collarbone, and he also has 147 innings of big league experience at first base. There’s some sense to bringing in another catcher — particularly if it’s someone who can handle multiple spots on the diamond to give the Reds some more flexibility.
- The Phillies were dealt a tough blow last week with the revelation Bryce Harper required a full Tommy John procedure. The Phils announced Harper was expected to return as a bat-only option by the All-Star Break while playing the outfield again at some point in the second half. President of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski left open the possibility of an earlier return this week (link via Matt Gelb of the Athletic) but suggested he didn’t want to project any kind of more optimistic timeline. “In my own mind, I’m looking at the All-Star break. Anything that’s before that is great,” Dombrowski said. The veteran executive downplayed the need for the Phils to add an outfielder in response to the surgery, pointing out that any pickup would lose his path to everyday playing time once Harper returned. The DH-only role would force Kyle Schwarber and Nick Castellanos into the corner outfield regularly to flank center fielder Brandon Marsh, with righty-hitting Matt Vierling on hand as the fourth outfielder. Dombrowski suggested that while the Phils will be “open-minded” to the possibility of adding on the grass, “it’s not a priority for us.“
- Adding to the bullpen is certainly a key objective for the Mets, who saw each of Adam Ottavino, Seth Lugo, Trevor Williams, Joely Rodriguez and Trevor May hit free agency. Will Sammon of the Athletic reports that New York is one of several teams to have looked into Tommy Kahnle, although he cautions it’s presently unclear how interested the Mets are in the free agent right-hander. Kahnle is an interesting upside play. He lost almost all of 2020-21 rehabbing from Tommy John surgery, and renewed arm inflammation cost him almost four months with the Dodgers this past season. Kahnle allowed only four runs in 12 2/3 innings when healthy enough to pitch, though, striking out 14 against three walks. The 33-year-old racked up swinging strikes at a massive 17.2% clip while leaning on his stellar changeup more than three-quarters of the time. Kahnle posted a 3.67 ERA with an elite 35.5% strikeout rate over 72 appearances with the Yankees in 2019, his most recent full season.
I don’t Pittsburgh going without a lefty starter or a catcher. So at the very least I see that. Maybe another starter. And anyone willing to come on a minor league deal will be welcome.
So are the Reds saying they will add another catcher if it is cheap enough, or that they are protecting themselves against Stephenson having more concussions where he is unable to play and/or having to move positions?
I have an answer to any questions that have to do with the Reds or Pirates. Who cares? Especially in the case of the Pirates.
The Pirates don’t even try to win. MLB needs to instill a salary cap floor so that loser Pittsburgh franchise is forced to try to put a competitive product on the field.
What a complete horse crap team. Nice stadium though
MLB needs a salary cap floor AND ceiling. They have for several years now. It’s why the sport is dying in most of the country.
Good luck. The large markets are enjoying their money and the small markets are happy with the money the large markets are giving them. Players aren’t remotely as relevant but they like the current system as well. Hard to get change when everyone is happy. Even the fans are happy. Only small market fans complain. You ever hear large market fan say they want their team to not be allowed to spend 200 300 million so their team can win less but are fine though so mlb can have a even playing field.
This one belongs to the Reds;
MLB is more popular than it’s ever been. By attendance. By revenue. By video and radio ratings.
Idk if we will ever see either honestly. The owners would instantly push back in favor of a salary cap if the players association wanted teams to have a mandatory minimum salary.
That is exactly how it played out these last CBA negotiations, and it got nowhere..
If I HAD TO choose one or the other, I would say it’d be more likely that we would see a mandatory minimum salary for teams rather than having a salary cap..
“MLB is more popular than it’s ever been. By attendance. By revenue.”
When you mistake population increases and inflation for popularity.
Baseball is a decade away from hospice care.
Lack of competition in the summer is the main thing keeping the heart monitor beeping.
And even that won’t be enough soon.
Trolls drag small market teams (and by extension, their fans’ morale) through the.mud every year shaming teams to spend more.
And the availability of alternate entertainment is greater. So it’s popularity still holds.
Population increases and inflation? Come on, dawg. They account for that. That’s why team valuations go up and tv contracts are valued in the billions. Even looking at inflation and population growth, mlb has grown as business. Whether you like it or not.
I love when people make outrageous claims like this without any factual evidence to back it up.
I mean, I think mlb can make some improvements but hospice care in a decade??!!!
Lol absurd.
I’m curious, if mlb is “dying in most of the country” is that like 80%? Where do you guys come up with this?
Half of mlb teams averaged 30,000+ over 81 home games. That’s not including the other revenue streams they have these days. If that’s dying, I want in!
Baseball is dying because the modern game is boring. To wit, who wants to spend a couple of hundred bucks taking kids/grand kids to a baseball game and regularly watch 20 or more of the 54 combined outs recorded due to the batter striking out? Not my cup of tea!
They used to average a heck of a lot more than that.
I like the obliviousness of large market fans.
Hope you feel the same when baseball is down to eight teams.
The average age of an MLB fan is almost 60.
If you don’t understand the demographic cliff coming for baseball….
I guess that’s where the phrase “ignorance is bliss” comes from.
Baseball used to be king. Now, it’s behind the NFL and NBA, but somehow it’s “more popular than ever.”
Young people won’t take tickets for free, but sure…it’s the golden era.
Spending doesn’t equal winning. If it did the rays would not have a better record the last decade than 24 of the 30 teams. And before anyone not thats not smart replies with how many World Series do they have by that logic mire teams should tank every year if your definition of success is only winning the World Series.
The team’s fans care. I’m sure they don’t on the free spending coasts though. They like their near monopoly.
I agree. Salary cap floor and ceiling
You mean the coasts with the vast majority of the population? Cincinnati just needs to take their revenue sharing and be the Washington Generals for cities with wealthier people and more television sets.
The luxury tax acts as a cap of sorts and subsidizes teams that don’t spend.
If you had a floor, you’d simply incentivize bad teams to sign lousy players with bad contracts the end of their careers. I’m not sure how that would improve the quality of play.
GM, You really want to kill the game, don’t you?
Definitely a large market bias on your part. But people on the east coast tend to not care as long as they get theirs.
What is wrong with signing players at the end of their careers?
Pirate signing of Santana is a big upgrade over who they had playing first base last year.
The fans even get to see a legitimate MLB player instead of a AAAA player.
I think Babe Ruth hit his last home runs as a Boston Brave against the Pirates.
Ruth hit his last 3 dingers against the Pirates and in the same game
Forbes Field was the most difficult stadium to hit a home run and Ruth twice hit one over the right field roof
Only he and Willie Stargell accomplished that feat
Game is what it is and I never said anything on here ever that would suggest I have a large market bias.
I care, galdom……some of us grew up in small markets
Dont encourage Galdom. This person demonstrated that they understand very little about baseball economics, particularly rhe relationship of a salary floor to cap. It was a poor comment fueled by emotion vs actual knowledge. The FACT of the matter is this past recent CBA did little to level the playing field, and the small market owners were just fine with that arrangement…and that is fact.
Salary floor won’t accomplish anything beyond bumping up salaries a little.
Think making Pittsburgh go to an $80m payroll will do anything–really?
As a matter of fact, yes, it would make a difference, JackStrawb
Starting in 2013 when the Pirates payroll was close to $85 million, they were the wild card team, payroll increased the following 2 years when they again made the playoffs as the wild card team.
In 2016 when they slashed payroll while trading away the best players, they hit bottom
Just out of curiosity theMan3 around those years did the pirates attendance go up significantly?
yes, and in each year, attendance records were broken at PNC Park
How many sellouts?
I’m not sure but the capacity is around 36,000 and in 2015, they drew almost 2.5 million
That’s about 30,000 per game. Not bad for a small market city
According to the NYT article of last April, the Pirates received $73 million from their share of the luxury tax.
If their 2023 payroll is estimated to be $54 million, at least $20 million will go directly into the cheapest owner in baseball’s pocket, Bob Nutting
Ticket sales will also go into his pocket
Baseball should both force teams to spend their entire LT share on payroll and penalize teams that don’t
TM3, do any of the revenues go to cover operating expenses? Are there any operating expenses other than player salaries? Your income statement seems to have 3 lines:
Revenues
– Player Salaries
= Profit
Nutting actually fell down a few spots on the “wealthiest owners” list according to Forbes. A measly $1.1B in net worth. Poseur
And the Pirates only made $258M in 2021.
While I’m sure we’ll be getting the numbers for 2022 shortly, the point is that owners are enjoying fabulous profits, regardless of wins and attendance
In this town and others like Cincinnati, ownership has done a marvelous job of destroying a long-dedicated fan base. It’s almost unbelievable to write this and yet, it’s clear
Baseball should do a lot of things but with such amazing windfalls, will do nothing. Why should they?
The World Series is almost always a case of the “haves” battling it out. Big markets, big budgets. Rare when a small market team can ascend to such heights and it’s always a one-off
But MLB is big business. These are no dummies. They conduct business in line with how continuous market research directs them. One gets the feeling that the decision to have teams in places like Pittsburgh, Milwaukee and Cincinnati et al, is mere tokenism anymore…simply a way to have fans remember the game of baseball. The focal point will always be major markets
Revenues go to all operating costs including players salaries
Right, because in Pittsburgh, fans cut the grass in PNC, clean the stadium and work the games for free. Also, Nutting has figured out how to eliminate all the other expenses (water, electricity, insurance, scouting, front office, travel, equipment, etc.) associated with running a baseball club. Man is a genius, the other owners should take note.
The usual contrarian-for-the-sake-of-being-a-contrarian take. What a complete waste of time your viewpoints are
Actually the Pirates rent the stadium on a yearly lease for $1.
The city and county get their money from the taxes from vendors and nearby bars and restaurants that attract the fans who attend the games
Galdom do you watch other sports? Obviously you don’t. Because there’s tanking in every other sport, a salary floor can’t be had without a salary cap AND THE MLBPA HAS BARGAINED FOR DECADES AGAINST THAT! It’s not going to happen and it’s not going to fix the problem anyway. You don’t even know enough about the subject to even have a opinion on it.
Iverbure, finally someone who understands the basics. TheMan and Galdom obvious cant even afford a clue.
They did good with quintana last yr.
I hope the Mets don’t throw a last minute bullpen together of potential bounce back players. Besides Diaz their bullpen isn’t nearly as good as all of the other top end teams.
Santana gonna be clutch next year.
And I don’t think the new shift rules will help Santana. teams could put their SS or 2b man up the middle, just on their side of the IF. the third and first basemen can shift more toward the ss or 2b man’s position if the mi shift to the middle. Really, the only changes in the shift is that 2b men can’t play on the OF grass and there has to be two fielders on either side of second base. The one question I have is, if a team brings an OF in to add a fifth IF, which side of the IF should he go?
Without the ability to use the “ shift “ which baseball is eliminating next year, your suggestion is a moot point, avenger 65.
SMH
The new shift rules also prohibit 3rd basemen from playing shortstop, shortstop from playing 2nd and 2nd basemen from playing almost right field
Apparently you don’t understand the change of shifts
I doubt teams will use a 5 man infield. They could play the left fielder in short right field against a dead lefty pull hitter, but be a big risk
Other teams are pursuing top of the lineup talent and the Reds article is about deciding whether or not to have two backup catchers that will hit about .220 and not contribute offensively.
You got your high price talent in Votto and Moustakas to provide the offense.
Do Votto and Moustakas know to try hard?
I am expecting them to practically give away Moose to a large market team needing a DH kind of what they did with Suarez last year, if they can.
Problem is, you have to wonder what good player they have to include to get them to do it, like happened with Winker last year.
That’s the problem with a bad contract on a small market team. It kills you for several years because there is no recovering from it since you can only afford one or two to begin with.
welcome to the approach of the Pittsburgh pirates, redhaze1
Pretty much the curse of the small market teams. Face it, there are only about 6-8 teams that are mentioned and able to sign free agent talent. The rest just get the leftovers.
This is what is killing the sport in flyover country.
Don’t bring up the luxury tax, there is not enough teeth in it to prevent teams from paying it. Otherwise there wouldn’t be so many teams willing to pay it.
If your a fan of a team you should be cheering against your team signing free agents as a majority of them don’t work out but that doesn’t fit your dumb narrative
Just like society. A lot of CEOs don’t work out, athletes in other sports, actors, the guy at the supermarket or the mail room, etc.
Not sure what that has to do with it. I thought this site was MLB Trade Rumors. Unfortunately it mostly centers around six to eight teams during free agent season.
I am guessing you are a fan of one of those considering the statement “dumb narrative”. Small market fans, which is becoming most of the major leagues anymore, get it.
And getting a salary floor isn’t going to make the free agent market centre around cincy either. If the salary is the same, players aren’t signing in cincy. If they pay slightly more, players aren’t signing in cincy. If they pay a lot more then they will and the reds get stuck with a terrible contract that keeps them from being competitive. You aren’t even smart enough to know that you shouldn’t want free agents to sign with your team and your crying about it. Draft develop, once the player reaches free agency let him go for picks and let a big market team pay for his decline rinse repeat and enjoy. That’s how baseball works. You’re welcome for education.
How often does a team come together and win anything even when you can buy a pennant? I’m sure you know the rarity of that.
Now think if you are not able to buy a pennant and have to count on those guys you develop do that in a 3-4 year shot before the big markets start picking them off for big money contracts you can’t afford.
There’s your education on what 20 or more teams and their fans deal with every season. This is why the game is dying in those markets.
Some of the most interesting hot stove news this year are the new assistant bench coach announcements.
I live for those.
The NHL instituted a floor and a cap. Perhaps with expansion and for economic survival of the league been a good thing , BUT what you get is 32 teams who basically look like each other. Football is close to that too.
Which is as it should be.
No it shouldn’t. It’s boring. Parity is actually bad for sports. Poorly run organizations don’t get better when you limit their ability to spend to cover up their mistakes. Salary caps are horrible for players.
Spoken just like a large market apologist.
Yeah, nothing is more exciting than a LAD vs Pirates game. THAT’S not boring.
In 2022 the Bucs took the overall yearly series against the Dodgers
Walk a mile in the shoes of any big market team fan, TheMan3. You are interested a in going to some games. How does your Dodgers, or Yankees, etc, seem exciting?
Look, baseball has largely returned to its barnstorming era of the 20’s and 30’s, when teams would get on trains and play teams in smaller markets, barnstorming across the Midwest and west coast
Big market teams can’t simply play each other forever. You’d kill the interest and the need for playoffs or WS. You have to provide variety. And if one of these small markets occasionally competes, it’s the gravy
As stated above, MLB is a multi billion dollar business. These people are sharp.
I haven’t been to a Pirate game since Nutting bought the team wholly from Kevin McClatchey, Dude, and won’t attend another until Nutting sells the franchise.
If he doesn’t, I still won’t attend any home games and will be happier for it.
Jeez. Old age. Should have read, how does the idea of your Dodgers or Yankees playing the Pirates, or Reds, seem like an exciting game to watch, let alone buy a ticket to?
If the players have less jobs because teams go bankrupt, that is not good for them either.
They have talked contraction before. Just counting the days until it come a up again.
Apparently you don’t remember the sport when it was king and most teams had an even playing field. Sure there were lousy teams because of lousy management but that happens in business everywhere.
Enjoy coastal baseball while you can. When the average age of 60 fans stop going and then die out, what will happen to the game then?
But then again, so called east coastal business geniuses don’t think past the next quarter profits, I forgot.
The Bucs swept LA last year…in LA…and won the season series.
You must be new here or just enjoying becoming noteworthy through boorish behavior, iverbure. Congratulations.
I think most people on this thread have valid thoughts but it’s good to know you have all the answer. Don’t know who exactly you are telling to “be quiet” but I can safely say you’re embarrassing yourself for all to see
Run along and get some air. You need it
Yeah and I loved that
And they fell apart at Yankee Stadium twice after being manhandled by the Mets
My point was….if you are a fan of a big market team, you want to see your team play the big boys. I don’t imagine the average Dodger fan is interested in seeing the Pirates play their club either at Dodger Stadium or on TV
Bucs took 5 outta 6. Weird. That’s why they play the games.
Interesting stat for you. The Pirates we’re 27th in home attendance but they were 10th in road attendance. I guess fans like to go out to see their team host the Pirates under the assumption that they will get to see their team win.
5 of 6 from the Dodgers
The sport is looking at expansion not teams going bankrupt. You don’t have a clue as to what you’re talking about. And neither does that tired old dude. Both of you should just stop having opinions because they’re simply wrong mixed with some incorrect facts.
How long since the last expansion? It has been many years. Lip Service does not equal reality despite what a certain political party might think as to if you repeat something often enough that people will believe it, even if it is a lie.
Just cause you are a fan of a large market team, doesn’t mean you know reality outside your little world. You just want to be contrary with nothing to back it up except they are making money. Nothing about the health and long term future of the game, which is in jeopardy.
Go back to Twitter, this is a forum for knowledgeable fans that are older than a minute to discuss things about the game of baseball in a reasonable manner.
On a Phillies website someone mentioned Will Myers on a 1yr 5mill deal….?
Guess it kinda makes sense, no shift, better hitters park and he can play 1b, lf and rf….
Maybe it comes down to do they view Hall as a legit platoon guy on not?
Harper will be back @All Star break, but will still need time…..and Myers would stick all year….(and yes Vierling too)
Am tired of the Bohm to 1b posts, he was worse at 1b. If they really want to move him off 3rd, wait till ’24 and put him in LF/RF and give it a full off season…he has a good arm…..
Ugh. Will Myers. Phils need a corner outfielder, maybe even get Bellinger (and move Marsh?), so they can kick Schwarber or Castellanos to DH.
That makes a lot of sense regarding the Pirates signing of Santana. The Pirates were one of the first franchises that employed the shift on a regular basis around 10 years ago, so it makes sense that they would be among the most knowledgeable about what banning it will do.
Opposing teams shifted against Santana somewhere around 98% of his at bats last year. So it makes sense he specifically stands to benefit a little from the no shift rules.
“At one year and $6.725MM, the Santana signing was…” ridiculous. FTFY
—what kind of website routinely reposts the same comment a half-dozen times. Wth, mlbtr?
One way to even up money spent by teams is having a team ceiling of let’s say $85,000,000.00 and for each $2,000,000.00 they go over they lose on roster spot. For example if a team were to spend $91,000,000.00 they could only field 23 players instead of 26. That would certainly coo off teams like the Yankees and Dodgers who try to buy a in.
I read the Mackey article and immediate envisioned Pirates announcer Greg Brown at the keyboard, ghost writing as Mackey. I mean, to laud Cherington is one thing but to suggest the possible signing of Joey Gallo, another
Mackey articulates the paradigm shift that many of us here have perceived with these signings. We are moving from developing the young “talent” already here and in the minors to “being competitive” with the additions of retreads.
We’ve been down this road before. And repeatedly
Cherington casually throws out factoids about how Santana isn’t that far off from who he was 5 years ago. Pity the eye test says differently
This is once again an effort for the Pirates to have fans forget what they saw last year. That indeed, to know that what we saw really wasn’t as bad as it looked. That with these additions and a couple more retreads, happy days are here again
Simply amazing. If only Pirates pitchers could spin as well as their marketing people
The Reds used to always have a Corky Miller type at AAA to work with young pitchers coming up through the system and in case someone gets hurt.
After thinking about this, my guess is that is really what Krall is talking about here. Really cheap guy who will be lucky to hit his weight but a good defender.
Actually spend some cash on a Barnhart or someone like that? I doubt it.
Interesting that when Bryce Harper was on the IL for 2 months this past season, that the Phillies winning record was better without Harper than when Harper was back from his injury list stint. The Phillies peaked @ 18+ games over .500 WITHOUT HARPER.
Other players “stepped up” and filled the offensive production of Harper very nicely.
The Phillies bench produced nicely in 2022.
Castellanos had an career low year in 2022.. Castellanos just needs his average career production in ’23 to take up the slack when Harper is on the IL..
The Phillies have proven that they can win with or without Harper in the lineup.
The sky is not falling for the Phillies.
The Phillies peaked @ 18 games over .500 when Harper was on the IL for 2 months.
The Phillies have the depth to win and stay in the pennant race while Harper is on the IL in 2023. Castellanos is more likely than not to start hitting again at at least career average levels.
And, the Phillies bench is good enough to step it up and provide some extra offense also like it did last year.
With the money they spent, it should.
Man, the MLBTR staff is really using their thesaurus for these Mets article titles.
Mets “interested in”
Mets “considering”
Mets “have looked into”
Mets “in contact with”
Mets “meeting with”
So many ways to hide that they are using the same article template to place the Mets in on every single free agent on the planet. Let’s see how many more ways can it be said.
Well it is always Mets, Yankees, Dodgers, Padres, Red Sox, Astros, Giants this off-season .Probably cause the Cubs aren’t ready to spend money again yet.
And the funny part, is that they’ll name only certain teams, but then it’ll be clear that they miss the boat when many of the free agents in those articles will sign with some other team that doesn’t have one of these types of articles written for.
If the Phillies could add Turner, Taillon and a couple of relievers they are mostly set except for depth. Falter and Sanchez can fill out the rotation until the kids are ready.