There's getting damned by faint praise, and then there's being lavished left and right for simply doing your job.
Here's hoping it doesn't come to that where it pertains to the Pirates' front office doing the right thing for the first time in more than a calendar year in agreeing to terms with Ivan Nova on a three-year, $26 million contract Thursday.
It's a terrific move, including the term and price.
It's just the right touch toward helping the 2017 team.
It illustrates actual intentions of competing immediately.
And here, in no particular order, are the four parties most deserving of bows:
1. Nova himself.
When I spoke with the man in late September, before a game in Milwaukee, he looked and sounded crestfallen. He knew his contract was expiring, and he knew he wanted to stay. But, as he told me that afternoon, he had yet to hear from the Pirates' brass, and that bothered him.
During the next 24 hours, both the brass and Nova's agent, Greg Genske, rushed into damage-control mode by running to other outlets to insist they were engaged. After which, of course, nary a peep emerged from either side for months and months.
Nova's wish was genuine. That's what counts above all. And the fact that he was able to spur real action from the team and the guy taking the 10 percent cut, even though the latter surely could have made more money by holding out for more, that's to the player's inestimable credit. That's a rare breed in professional sports.
“Oh, I want to stay,” the big righty told me that day. “It’s not up to me right now, but if the situation was presented to me where I could stay … there’s no doubt. I want to stay.”
It's hard to imagine a player more deserving of a rousing ovation at PNC Park next April than this one.
2. Ray Searage and Francisco Cervelli.
I wasn't comfortable writing this at the time, nor in the months that followed, but I am now: The pitching coach and catcher did so much more than make Nova a better performer. They also pushed hard -- no, relentlessly -- in recent months to get Nova retained.
Stop and think about that a moment, because it's worth it.
As individuals, they have ... well, they have something to gain, but they also run a risk of looking like they're interfering with decisions made over their heads. But both of these gentlemen, whom I trust as much as anyone at any level of the organization, were OK with fighting for what they felt was right. And they did. And then they did some more, as recently as last week.
Good for them. Their team will be all the stronger for it.
Just ask the catcher ...
