Neal Huntington sat at a table on a stage inside a press conference room at PNC Park Monday night, reading from a prepared statement after he traded the face of the Pirates’ franchise to the Giants.
Huntington started by thanking McCutchen, a former National League MVP, for his contributions to the franchise, specifically his role in leading the Pirates to three consecutive playoff appearances from 2013-15.
Then, with Bob Nutting, the franchise's controlling owner, and team president Frank Coonelly standing along a wall to his right, Huntington defended the acquisition of two players to a room full of reporters.
Following the 20-minute news conference, Nutting indicated this won’t be the last time the Pirates have trouble retaining a foundational piece of the franchise, either.
“I think if you have a fundamental redesign of the economics of baseball,” Nutting said when asked what stops the cycle. “That’s not what we’re going to have. We need to recognize the system that we’re working within and find ways to optimize the efficiencies, inefficiencies and the realities of the existing system of baseball. That’s what Neal is focused on.”
In exchange for McCutchen and Gerrit Cole, the Pirates received six players, four of whom are expected to contribute in the major leagues in 2018. However, none are among Baseball America’s Top 100 prospects.
If Felipe Rivero’s reported four-year, $22-million contract extension is completed, the Pirates’ projected payroll is roughly $78 million. Josh Harrison, who will make $10.25 million in 2018, also is likely to be traded. According to Forbes, the club's payroll was $95.8 million on opening day this past season. The Brewers ranked last in Major League Baseball at $60.8 million.
The Pirates saved a considerable amount of money in 2017 with the suspension of Starling Marte and Jung Ho Kang being unable to enter the country after his third DUI conviction.
Additionally, they saved roughly $600,000 by losing Juan Nicasio on irrevocable waivers at the trade deadline, and Tony Watson was traded to the Dodgers in July.
There also is a considerable amount of revenue on the way, too. Each team is reportedly going to receive $50 million this spring for Disney’s purchase of BAMtech, the streaming media unit created by MLB.
Nutting, though, would not elaborate on where the Pirates will allocate that additional revenue:
Rather than adding to the current core, the front office chose to reduce payroll. McCutchen, 31, will make $14.5 million in 2018 — the final year of the long-term extension he signed in 2012. Cole, viewed by some analysts as the top starting pitcher available on the trade market, agreed to a one-year, $6.75 million contract last Friday to avoid salary arbitration.
The 27-year-old right-hander will not be a free agent until after the 2019 season — his final arbitration-eligible season — and is a significant bargain considering better days may be ahead.
Huntington called trading McCutchen “the hardest decision I have had to make and anticipate having to make as a general manager,” but he expressed confidence the deal had to be done.
"There’s no question he was a huge part of our good teams in 2013 to 2015," Huntington said. "He was an MVP and in the MVP balloting. I’m not even going to attempt to rationalize it because I respect and appreciate where our fans are. We want them to think with their hearts. We want them to fall in love with these players. It’s our job to give them a lot of players to fall in love with. I said it, not in a negative way, that players do come and players do go. Andrew will always have a special place in this franchise’s heart and he should. He’s earned that. But that is the hard part of this game. ... To find the team that players stay with their whole career is the oddity, it’s the exception to the rule. I understand that our fan base is unhappy with that. That is the unfortunate reality of the sport today."
Trade interest was reportedly tepid with McCutchen a year away from free agency. In fact, the Pirates gave the Giants a reported $2.5 million as part of the deal.
The return for McCutchen: right-handed reliever Kyle Crick, a former top prospect who failed as a starting pitcher, and switch-hitting outfielder Bryan Reynolds, ranked by Baseball America as the Giants’ No. 5 prospect.
Crick, 25, will join the Pirates’ bullpen in a late-inning role, and Reynolds, 22, will likely begin the season at Double-A Altoona. The Pirates also added right-handed pitcher Joe Musgrove, third baseman Colin Moran, right-handed reliever Michael Feliz and minor league outfielder Jason Martin from the Astros in the Cole trade
The Pirates' starting rotation will now include Ivan Nova, Jameson Taillon, Chad Kuhl, Trevor Williams and either Musgrove, Steven Brault or Tyler Glasnow. Moran, who has only 16 games of major league experience, will likely take over as the starting third baseman.
Meanwhile, the bullpen only has one experienced left-handed reliever: Rivero. The Pirates will rely on a number of potential late-inning options, including Crick, Feliz, George Kontos, Daniel Hudson and Edgar Santana.
With a vacancy in left field, and possibly another at second base if Harrison is dealt, the Pirates will rely on a youth movement built around Marte, Josh Bell, Adam Frazier, Gregory Polanco, a young starting rotation and the newest acquisitions.
It’s clearly a rebuild, but Huntington declined to use that term.
"What we describe [this as] is we have a group of young players,” Huntington said when asked if this is indeed a rebuild. “Some in their first full year, some in their second full year. Some veterans still here that are going to fight and compete that make a good foundation of a club. We’ve added four players potentially to that group right now. We have a group coming from Triple-A that are ready. In our minds, a rebuild implies you’re looking five years down the road. This team is going to show up in spring training, ready to go, ready to compete, ready to defy odds just like that 2013 Pirates team did.”
Throughout his tenure, Huntington has said his goal is to win as consistently as possible, and he repeated that statement to a room full of season ticket holders at PirateFest last month. At the Winter Meetings, though, he indicated the club could move its window to compete back to 2019 in what he described as "retooling."
Trading Cole and McCutchen is a clear sign he chose the latter direction.
How did the Pirates get to this point? A few trades didn't work out — they acquired Jon Niese from the Mets for Neil Walker — and the front office declined to add to the roster after winning 98 games in 2015, as well as following the 2016 season.
Huntington took the blame when asked how the Pirates got to this point:
Nutting and Huntington emphasized the need to think long-term, specifically, how the Pirates can return to the postseason. But with prospects such as Reynolds, Ke'Bryan Hayes, Taylor Hearn and Shane Baz years away from the major leagues, how do they build a roster to compete long-term?
Bell, 25, is not a free agent until 2023, but he's represented by Scott Boras, the same agent who represents Cole. Boras clients typically test the free-agent market. Like the decision with McCutchen, the day will come when the Pirates must determine if they can re-sign perhaps the new face of the franchise to a long-term deal.
The problem won't be limited to Bell, either. Huntington said it will be difficult to retain any player who has the type of franchise-altering impact McCutchen showed.
"I’m very proud of those '13-'15 teams and Andrew McCutchen was a huge part of that," Huntington said. "We’re looking to do that again. We’re looking to build around the next great Pittsburgh Pirate player and have them be a part of our successes and in a perfect world, maybe for a longer stretch of time. But the reality is it says that’s not going to happen. This is going to be something that large markets work through, medium markets work through and small markets work through where you’re not going to be able to keep everybody that you want to."
MATT SUNDAY GALLERY