12-4-23 – By Gary Morgan – @garymo2007 on X
Exciting times in baseball, well, at least it’s supposed to be. Nashville is a fun city so here’s hoping these GM’s get something done aside from ogling Carrie Underwoods gams. Let’s jump right in.
1. The Rule 5 Draft 12/6
You aren’t hearing much about this subject this offseason are you? Couple reasons for that, first, the Pirates really shouldn’t be playing in this talent acquisition pool this year. Any holes they have being filled in this fashion would minimally be seen as inadequate. Even in the shadow of success cast by Jose Hernandez last year, the 2024 Pirates can’t afford to on board someone, so the only way they can select a player would be if they saw another bullpen candidate like Hernandez that they feel they won’t have to hide, and even then, you have to prepared to see one scary thing and cut ties without wasting a spot into the season. If this were like 2022 I’d suggest taking a swing on Carlos De La Cruz the power hitting OF/1B combo from Philly. Strikes out a ton. Here’s the thing, he reminds me of a less powerful Mason Martin, but at 6’8″, and athletic enough to legit play OF and 1B, that’s an intriguing guy someone might take a run at, he’s their 6th ranked prospect.
For that reason, I’m simply not going to list a bunch of guys they might grab, I just don’t see it as a viable thing this year, and nobody takes a rule 5 selection and asks them to be a member of the rotation, so get that out your head. Well, maybe the 2021 Pirates or 2024 A’s could.
Instead, we’ll focus on who the Pirates could lose and even here, I’m not going to go through every name, only the ones I truly feel could get selected.
Yes, yes, they lost Blake Sabol last year, and yes, he hit some homers, bluntly, I’d trade Sabol for Hernandez, and that’s kinda what happened. lol
Matt Gorski – Number 20 prospect, He’s fast, he has power, he’s big, athletic, can play the outfield well and a little 1B. His health and especially this year the strikeout hold him back. Look, if I suggested De La Cruz up there, I have to acknowledge Gorski as a potential target.
Joe Perez – Released by Houston last year, and signed by the Pirates, Joe came on offensively with Altoona. In his 25 games with the Curve he hit .341, with 1.100 OPS. Listen, he’s at least interesting and at 24 years old, there’s still some chance at upside. 3B/RF/1B
Jase Bowen – Number 27 prospect, and not yet 24 years old, Jase’s biggest problem is how long it took him to get noticed and promoted. With Greensboro the Pirates High A affiliate, he played 110 games, whacking 23 homers with an OPS of .802. All Greensboro field slander applies of course as it comes to the power numbers, and he didn’t carry it into Altoona for his cup of coffee promotion. In the AFL he did, but the air is notoriously thin. I ultimately doubt he gets selected, but he’s worth mentioning. OF/2B
Malcom Nunez – Can I just say everything I said last year? Yes, and therein lies the problem. Injuries stunted his season, but the part he did put on the books looked eerily similar to his track record, as opposed to an upswing. There’s nothing eye popping, and you usually need something eye popping to get a team to take a swing. Most of his numbers when you add them all up or look at them individually are just some shade of gray. He’s safe I think, but I’m also not sure I care.
2. Rumors & Where They Come From
Everywhere. Rumors come from everywhere.
That’s the truth. Sometimes it’s a friend. Or a friend of someone important who really has an ear. Sometimes it’s a lucky elbow bump at a pub. The ones you hear on social media though, you know, who’s in on whom, and stuff like that. Well, I’ll say this, almost nothing you hear at times like this on the calendar come without agenda.
Sometimes they simply come from two teams with a very open negotiation, but those are rare, and happen more in hockey where the national media and executive ecosystem essentially share beds when it comes to trade creation. Then again, I’ve lived under a very loose lipped Jim Rutherford GM stint.
Another rarity is the health related negotiations. Like Carlos Correa last offseason.
Teams rarely leak their involvement in negotiations beyond confirming a conversation or stating an obvious need they’d like to fill. You’ll never hear them name names on a package. So when it comes from a team source, it’s usually to send a message to fans. Basically, we tried! Even then it’ll be semi vague like we offered a competitive package, but names will never ever be confirmed, at least not until they move on or retire and feel like telling stories.
Agents leak most of the news on which teams are in on free agents, or even prominent trade targets on occasion. Agents want a hot market for their players so you’ll hear statements like “The Yankees, Blue Jays, Twins and Cubs are all in on Player X”. It may be true, but much like never confirming names in a package, most execs would never bother refuting a report like this. Say this is totally true, but the Cubs weren’t involved at all. It’s very unlikely they publicly refute it, and even if they did, it’s played off as “fake news”, so why bother commenting.
It could also be nothing more than a phone call to ask about his starting price. Then someone like Heyman or Passan run to their team sources and ask for confirmations and specifics. Sometimes, teams like the Yankees or Dodgers will feign interest just to see if they can scare off competition by waving their wallets, and they’ll use the media to do it by confirming interest, maybe even suggesting term because that too can scare off the minnows so the sharks can play. Think about it, if you hear the Pirates are in on a guy with the Dodgers and Yankees, you aren’t exactly buying a jersey are ya? Might you just change your focus if you’re Ben Cherington?
This stuff is so structured at this point, and there’s such an ingrained network of sources and feeding/dispensing stations that it rarely comes from anyone new. It’s part of why I laugh at everyone who jumps on the scene screaming and hollering about having sources. LOL. As I started with, everyone does. But none of them are breaking anything like this. Even if your source is Bob Nutting’s Manicurist, you won’t be the first to hear about that extension. That’s above all of our stations in life. It’s really much better to just admit it and not pretend you have something super special, because if the news truly matters, it will go to the big fish to feed first. Even if she runs to the phone, by the time Bob finds out the offer he authorized is happening, it’s already on Twitter or close to it.
Everyone else can get the exclusive on someone’s charity cleat designs by creeping athletes wives on Instagram! LOL, yeah, not my bag either.
I will say, there are several in the blog space who have excellent sources throughout the minor leagues. Our own Craig Toth among them, but that is a completely different type of news, and often a very personal connection that sometimes leads to not being able to use the information for fear of outing someone. The good ones don’t exploit it, the bad ones really do. The players learn quickly who’s who, and so do the coaches and support staffs and radio play by play guys.
Let the big dogs have their breaking news, I’m much happier talking about the move than telling people it happened before anyone else anyway.
3. Ok, Now Do Danny Murtaugh!
News broke last night that Jim Leyland was selected to the Hall of Fame, and as I wrote last Monday from Boston, I very much so wanted to see it and I don’t need to see things in a certain order to be happy about a great thing. Jimmy deserved this, but now that he’s in, how about we take care of a great injustice and get Pirates Skipper of two World Championships Danny Murtaugh in the Hall too. In 1960 the Pirates were honestly dominated by the powerful Yankees. Outscored 55-27 and in 7 games Murtaugh oversaw the most statistically nonsensical World Series Championship in the history of the game, and arguably the greatest homerun in the same series.
He’d leave and return, famously recognizing the talent in Pittsburgh in 1969 after the Bucs fired Larry Shepard and asking to return to the dugout.
Again he’d lead the Pirates to the Title in 1971. He’d also become the first manager to field an all black lineup, a moment in time that is still not as celebrated as it should be.
The number 40 has been retired by the Pirates. He was in he inaugural class of the Pirates Hall of Fame.
From 1948 to 1976 Murtaugh managed for 4 stints, but remained with the club’s front office in some capacity through most of the gaps. A Pirate for most of his adult life.
Also, the man was a quote lover’s treasure.
“Why certainly I’d like to have that fellow who hits a home run every time at bat, who strikes out every opposing batter when he’s pitching, who throws strikes to any base or the plate when he’s playing outfield and who’s always thinking about two innings ahead just what he’ll do to baffle the other team. Any manager would want a guy like that playing for him. The only trouble is to get him to put down his cup of beer and come down out of the stands and do those things.”
“Managing a ballclub is like getting malaria. Once you’re bitten by the bug, it’s difficult to get it out of your bloodstream.”
Here’s hoping the same committee that just did right by Leyland, circles back to Mr. Murtaugh, he’s an all time great Pirate and Baseball Man too.
4. Jack Flaherty
Now, take everything I said in point 2 and put it to practice.
NBC Sports is reporting that Jack Flaherty is receiving interest from the Pittsburgh Pirates. There’s even detail about how Jack wants some term but the Pirates hope he’ll take a shorter deal.
Who do you think that came from?
Right, the agent. The message I take from it is something like this. Look, the Pirates are at the right price, which should tell you it’s reasonable, we just want some years, anyone interested? LOL. I know, I’m guessing, reading context clues, but I’m telling you, when you know where it comes from, and understand there is an agenda it’s too fun to just deconstruct it.
All that said, Flaherty is a good target for this team, even though he desperately struggled last year at the end. At 28 years old, he’s already laid a decent track record in the league. Last year, a 4.99 ERA in 144.1 innings. K numbers are good, walk numbers aren’t.
Career, he’s a 3.75 ERA in 667.2 innings. Great K numbers, great walk numbers. If he’s the first signing, he walks in as the Pirates number 2 until he’s displaced.
Note: I’m not saying this is the best they should or could or even will do, but I am saying, while his numbers last year should give you pause, this is the type of guy you want to see. Lots of experience, nothing going wrong that looks terribly mechanical. You sign a guy like this and feel pretty good you’ve filled a slot. I’d also point out, Flaherty didn’t look bad in 2023 until he was shipped to Baltimore, it was there where he posted a 6.75 in 34.2 innings.
I really like his plausibility to bounce back, so here’s hoping this self serving agent’s briefing results in a Jason Mackey Tweet sometime this week huh?
If this is where they’re fishing, chances are we’ll wind up happy with a signing soon, even if Flaherty isn’t one of them. I am a little disappointed they’d like shorter term, but how they feel about one player doesn’t necessarily speak to how they feel about signing anyone beyond 2024.
5. MLB Needs to Help Answer the RSN Issue
The regional sports network fallout is yet to be experienced, but paralysis from the fear of what it could create is all over the place. Some teams already know how it’s shaking out and we’ve seen some of those teams shed salary.
MLB really needs to help control this situation a bit. Every team having autonomy on this is going to lead to even more despair while half the teams do well and half screw the pooch entirely navigating it.
I don’t think MLB Network is necessarily the best way to go, that’s not for me to decide, but I do think if MLB has to start taking this over for myriad markets, it’s going to further entrench a group of teams to remain or become dependent on the league for their table scraps.
I mean, they’ll all make the same I’d imagine and if the league makes 15-20 teams live on the baseball equivalent of food stamps while 10-15 teams pay for it and listen to them complain, the balance of power between the haves and have nots might just flip on it’s head.
Who knows what they’re telling teams, but MLB itself can’t subsidize all this without taking it in from somewhere. The way they have the system set up, Tax spending is the biggest form of redistribution of revenue. Make that tax so high that everyone is on the same ground and it might be fair for competition, but it also would penalize teams for being in a big market just like small ones used to be.
Eventually, all of this will come to a head, but my guess is it won’t truly be argued before 2027. That’s when the CBA expires, and it figures to be bloody.
Steel City Pirates 