Latest bullpen contract highlights the loop Pirates can’t seem to escape

If you were hoping the Pittsburgh Pirates might finally start treating the offseason like a competitive baseball team instead of a clearance-aisle charity operation, you're about to be disappointed (again).

On the heels of signing Jack Suwinski, who should’ve been a non-tender slam dunk, the Pirates have now extended an offer to avoid arbitration with… Yohan Ramírez.

Yes, that Yohan Ramírez. The single, most obvious non-tender candidate on the roster. The pitcher who symbolizes the very thing fans keep begging Bob Nutting and Ben Cherington to stop doing: hoarding fringe relievers like they’re gold bars while ignoring actual roster needs.

And the worst part? This comes right after the Pirates DFA'd Dauri Moreta, a guy who at least has upside, strikeout stuff, and real flashes of MLB reliability. They kicked the intriguing arm to the curb and decided to pay Ramírez instead. Spectacular.

Only the Pirates could watch a bullpen that desperately needs a closer, late-inning swing-and-miss, stability and competence and respond by locking in a back-end-of-the-roster arm whose best pitch is "hope he doesn't walk three guys this inning."

Ramírez represents exactly what the Pirates already have too much of: a journeyman reliever with shaky command that makes him a classic "maybe he figures it out" depth piece. You absolutely bring him back on a minor league deal, but you absolutely do not spend actual arbitration money on the guy. Unless, of course, you’re the Pirates — the kings of paying the wrong people the wrong amount for the wrong reasons.

Pirates' decision on Yohan Ramírez continues frustrating offseason pattern

It's the pattern that is the most frustrating part here. In a vacuum, keeping Ramírez is whatever. But stacked on top of everything else –– keeping another non-tender candidate in Suwinski, DFA'ing a useful arm in Moreta, making zero meaningful upgrades and preaching "flexibility" while exercising none –– it feels like the Pirates are rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic while telling fans the ship is “in a better position than it looks.”

When a front office truly wants to win, they avoid moves like paying arbitration salaries to borderline arms, burning 40-man roster spots on relievers who could clear waivers untouched, cycling through retreads instead of building a real bullpen, and preaching upside while protecting the lowest-ceiling players in the room.

But when a front office is more concerned with not messing up than actually improving, you get Suwinski and Ramírez back, Moreta gone and indifference disguised as roster building. This feels like the Pirates taking a giant step back into the comfort zone of mediocrity –– where fringe players get priority, upside gets pushed out, payroll stays low and expectations stay even lower.

If this is the "more payroll flexibility" Cherington preached, Pirates fans should be worried. Because if the new era of spending is $1.25 million for Suwinski, an arbitration salary for Ramírez and DFA'ing Moreta, then this is simply another winter of Pirates baseball as usual.

Pirates fans weren’t asking for much –– just competence and any sort of sign that the team is actually moving forward. Instead, they got Ramírez back. And that says more about this front office than any quote at the GM meetings ever could.