Kovacevic: Selloffs won't signal anything toward 2018

There's nothing palatable about the Pirates dumping Juan Nicasio to save roughly $600,000.

Not a thing whatsoever.

Truth be told, my stomach turned over twice tonight on the drive home from Starbucks upon hearing about this, and I'm pretty sure it wasn't the caffeine.

It's idiotic.

It's indefensible.

It's everything that's so, so misguided about this front office, that they'd so brazenly damage their own public image -- if that's even still doable -- by putting one of their best relievers on irrevocable waivers for the sole purpose of cutting less than 1 percent of their player payroll for the year. And on top of that, they'd do the same with Wade LeBlanc, who isn't anywhere near Nicasio's caliber, to make this look all the worse by saving a mere $130,000.

They're clueless about public perception to the point that one wonders if they even care what anyone thinks of them anymore. And I mean that. I've written this for years, but it's like they've carved out their own little cocoon over there at 115 Federal and, on those rare occasions they come out into the daylight, they just cover their eyes and complain that their critics, including their own fan base, are collective idiots.

This, again, is idiotic behavior. And indefensible.

But ...

But ... when you couldn't have conceived that a 'but' was possible ...

But I'm OK with where this franchise is headed.

I'll pause here for anyone who might have passed out.

I'm OK with where this franchise is headed, at least as far as 2018. And I say that because of some information I received Tuesday night after the Nicasio/LeBlanc news began breaking the Internet, and it's information that comes from longstanding, richly trusted sources within the team.



Let's lay this out with bullet points:

• The Nicasio/LeBlanc dumps are exactly what they seem. They're dumps. Management put money into Sean Rodriguez at the deadline -- $5 million salary this year and next -- with an aim of helping the current team contend. The current team isn't doing anything of the kind, obviously, so they want to recoup some of that cash.

To repeat for a third time, that's idiotic and indefensible, to be counting relative pennies like that. But I'm just passing it along.

• The dumps are not to be taken as a signal that the Pirates are engaged in some kind of broader selloff. They're determined, they say, to keep the core of this 25-man roster intact into 2018 and try again with this group. It might be the last time they try with this group, but they want another go.

Again, I'm just passing it along. Ha! Let me finish, OK?

• That includes Andrew McCutchen. He's got a $14.5 million club option for 2018, that representing just a $500,000 bump from his current pay, and the plan is to exercise that. You can't keep this core together without keeping Cutch.

• Neal Huntington and Clint Hurdle will, as has long been anticipated, get extensions. Frank Coonelly's not going anywhere, either. Other changes might happen. Not those.

• Bob Nutting isn't satisfied with the team's drafting, which has been some of Major League Baseball's least productive over the past decade. I have no idea what that will mean moving forward but, the last time Nutting was dissatisfied with an area of internal production, he worked personally and passionately with Rene Gayo, the Pirates' Latin American scouting director, to get it right. I was there in the Dominican to witness that myself. It was real.

• The Pirates blame themselves for this year's attendance drop, an average of 3,806 from last year, 6,540 from two years ago. That sentiment is also real, based on many accounts shared with me. They aren't blaming the fans, as Coonelly has recklessly done in the past. They feel like they blew a golden opportunity to build off their 98-win season not only on the field but also off it. The season-ticket base could have been firmed up. Group sales could have been built. Instead, all that good will has been burned up.

The Nicasio dump won't help. But I digress.

• There's a deep disappointment at all levels of management, in particular, with the struggles against lousy teams this summer, notably the 5-14 combined record against the last-place Reds and last-place Giants. The Pirates have more than held their own against the National League's best, only to fold against some of the worst. That disappointment contributed to the wavering before the trade deadline about whether to add or not, and it's contributing to the Nicasio/LeBlanc dumps.

I feel this is the passing the buck, similar to what happened after 2016 when the front office blamed the players and conveniently omitted entering the year with Ryan Vogelsong, Jon Niese and Jeff Locke in the rotation. But hey.

Here's what I take away from all this: 2018 is still a thing.

Really, that's right atop my mind at the moment, just as it was when I heard about Nicasio. Because if that's the last year Pittsburgh will have McCutchen, one of the great players in franchise history, as well as the penultimate year of Gerrit Cole, who'll leave through free agency in two years, then 2018 still needed to be a thing.

It needed to not be a throwaway, no matter what any of us thinks about the people running the process.

It needed to be allowed to play out.

With some help, I think it can: Josh Harrison can perform well again. Francisco Cervelli can find some health. This eclectic group of mostly young starters can grow a little more, particularly Trevor Williams and Jameson Taillon. Maybe Chad Kuhl, too, though he really needs another pitch. Felipe Rivero's been a godsend in the pen. Jordy Mercer is a dependable shortstop. Starling Marte and Gregory Polanco ... ugh, we'll see, but no one questions the talent. And Josh Bell I've saved deliberately for last because he's starting to look like he could be a significant impact-type bat. He's been a joy to watch and cover all summer.

With some help ... that's the qualifier.

If it works, great. Then the Pirates and Pittsburgh can get the season that way too many generations of local baseball fans have long deserved.

If it doesn't, fire them all. Every last one of them. Start from scratch.

But if all that I've culled from this idiotic, indefensible move is all of the above, that 2018 will still matter, then I'm completely cool with that.