With fans filing into a press conference room at PNC Park, Neal Huntington, Frank Coonelly and Clint Hurdle took their seats for what has become an annual airing of grievances for the Pirates' fan base.
It was the first of two question-and-answer sessions at PiratesFest, now a one-day event, Saturday, and each was asked a variety of questions from baserunning errors to Jung Ho Kang's visa status, but the primary focus was on payroll and whether or not Andrew McCutchen will return in 2018.
Both topics had Coonelly and Huntington on the defensive, particularly one fan's doubt in the current ownership group led by Bob Nutting, who did not attend the event.
"With sports owners, it's real money, it’s tangible money to them and they didn’t get to the point in time that they’re at by doing [spending unwisely]," Huntington said, adding to Coonelly's answer that voiced confidence in the Pirates' ability to win under Nutting. "If we operate as a business -- and that’s hard for fans to hear because you want to operate with Monopoly money -- but if we operate as a business, the other owners that would come in here would operate in the exact same way."
The latter session, which was general admission instead of exclusively for season ticketholders, was a bit more tense and provoked more thorough responses, particularly Coonelly shouldering the blame for the Pirates being unprepared for Kang's absence in 2017.
But both sessions were dotted with questions about the future of the organization, and how the front office plans to build a roster that can compete for the playoffs against teams like the Cubs and Cardinals. After all, both of those teams are more than willing to spend, as evidenced by St. Louis' unsuccessful bid to acquire Giancarlo Stanton from the Marlins.
Both also have payrolls that eclipsed $150 million on opening day in 2017. Meanwhile, the Pirates were at $100,575,946, which does not include the money saved with Starling Marte's 80-game suspension. They placed Juan Nicasio on irrevocable waivers in August, saving only $600,000 in a move that Coonelly said was to allocate financial resources to 2018, "when we do have a chance to win the World Series."
Nicasio was claimed by the Phillies, only to be traded to the division-rival Cardinals, where he was outstanding. The Pirates also traded Tony Watson to the Dodgers, although they acquired Oneil Cruz, who is now ranked as the club's No. 15-best prospect according to MLBPipeline.com.
It was the second consecutive season the Pirates sold at the trade deadline, following the departures of Francisco Liriano and Mark Melancon in 2016. Additionally, Neil Walker was traded following the 2015 season, when he hit 16 home runs in the Pirates' 98-win season.
Sean Rodriguez told reporters Saturday at PiratesFest that trading a "big piece of the core" after that third consecutive playoff appearance had a negative affect on team chemistry in 2016.
Of course, management was asked if it would execute a similar trade this time. Andrew McCutchen and Gerrit Cole have been the subject of trade rumors with the Winter Meetings beginning Sunday in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.
One fan's admiration for McCutchen during a question was met by a round of applause from the crowd Saturday and provoked a response from Huntington that offered no reassurance that the face of the franchise will return in 2018.
"I think all of us on this stage and Bob Nutting would agree that we don’t want to see Andrew McCutchen in another uniform," Huntington said. "Andrew McCutchen doesn’t want to be in another uniform. ... The challenge becomes how do we sign Andrew McCutchen and build a championship team around him, because our belief is that the fan base would rather cheer for a championship team than one really popular player. How do we build a championship team around him? That’s the hard part about this. We would love Andrew McCutchen to retire a Pirate. We also want to win a World Series championship. At times, those two are contradictory."
Huntington cited the fact that most small-market teams that sign their best player to a second long-term extension often struggle to win consistently, since that player will account for too much of the payroll.
Accounting for the four arbitration-eligible players, the Pirates payroll is currently projected to be $102 million on opening day, which would be a franchise record. They are pursuing a starting pitcher and have been linked to free agent lefty Jaime Garcia.
There are also needs in the bullpen and possibly at third base since the club is preparing for Kang not to return. Coonelly insisted there is no specific payroll the club must not eclipse, however, the trend the past three years has been the Pirates hovering around $100 million. He added that it's his responsibility to add more revenue for the club to give Huntington more payroll flexibility.
"We are investing the dollars we can generate through this team back into the team, and we need to make sure we’re as competitive as possible," Coonelly said. "The correlation between payroll and winning is certainly not perfect. Does it help if you can have additional dollars and I can give Neal additional flexibility to add players? Absolutely, and that’s our goal and objective. ... My job is to do a better job, quite frankly, to do a much better job of generating revenue with this organization to give our general manager more flexibility with payroll."
Additional revenue can be added through the local television contract, which expires in 2019. The current contract reportedly pays the club $25 million per season. But local television ratings were down 27 percent this season and attendance dipped to 25th in Major League Baseball.
Huntington said the focus is to field a competitive club annually within the constraints of the competitive disadvantage the Pirates face being a small-market team, although he and Coonelly acknowledged MLB's push to create more parity.
All the while, both kept voicing confidence that the current model with which the Pirates work can indeed bring another championship to Pittsburgh.
"Unquestionably it is possible, and we will do that," Coonelly said when asked if the Pirates can win the World Series given their financial constraints. "That is our sole goal and intent is to win a championship here, and we will win it with a payroll that will not be in the top 5 given the economics of the game."
