Ben Cherington reveals Pirates payroll played a role in ditching key player at deadline

The Pittsburgh Pirates consistently having one of the smallest team payrolls in Major League Baseball is something that fans have been forced to accept with team owner Bob Nutting at the helm.

But blaming the Pirates' poor on-field product on their small payroll is a cop-out, a crutch, an excuse for being content with mediocrity. The Milwaukee Brewers, for example, are in the bottom-10 in league payroll, and they won the National League Central Division in 2024.

While team spending isn't necessarily under his purview, Pirates general manager Ben Cherington has often been forced to answer for Nutting's refusal to invest in creating a winning team.

“[Payroll] is not what's going to drive winning here the most," Cherington said in his end-of-season press conference. "That's mostly because just simply of the structure of the game in a place like Pittsburgh to win. There are other places. There’s no place exactly like Pittsburgh, but there are other places that are similar and you look at how those teams win and how we're going to win here. It's going be through all those other things we were talking about.”

What other things? Drafting and developing? International signings? The Pirates haven't exactly excelled in those areas, either. In Cherington's five years with the organization, the Pirates have yet to produce a winning season; their farm system has gotten worse; and only one international signing (Luis Ortiz) has reached the majors.

If Cherington doesn't want to blame payroll for the team's failures, fine. The money isn't coming out of his pocket, after all. But all the things he can control – drafting, developing and international signings – have failed to improve under his watch. In fact, one might argue that they have actually gotten worse.

Ben Cherington reveals Pirates payroll played a role in ditching key player at deadline

If, as Cherington said, payroll isn't going to drive winning in Pittsburgh, then one of his remarks from later in the same press conference particularly stands out.

When asked about the trade that sent left-handed pitcher Martín Pérez to the San Diego Padres at the deadline in exchange for an 18-year-old DSL prospect, Cherington gave a response that seemingly refuted his earlier statement.

“At the time, we felt in order to execute the plan that we wanted to execute, that trade was an important component," he said. "We weren’t looking to get rid of Martín Pérez necessarily, but in the portfolio of what we were trying to do, it fit into that and allowed us to do what we wanted to do.”

Now, Pérez was signed to a one-year deal and was never going to be a long-term piece for the Pirates. But he was making $8 million in 2024; by shipping him out, the Pirates were able to virtually offset the cost they incurred by adding Bryan De La Cruz and Isiah Kiner-Falefa at the deadline. That's the "portfolio" of what they were trying to do – add pieces without adding dollar signs.

Sure, there's plenty of blame to go around after the Pirates sputtered to the end of yet another failed season in 2024, but it always seems to come back to Nutting's lack of investment in the team, whether it's his refusal to spend money on good players or his inability to hire the right personnel in baseball operations and front office roles.

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