Pirates fans jealous of Reds’ massive roster move for 2 notable reasons

One of the Pittsburgh Pirates' National League Central rivals sent shockwaves through the division on Monday when the Cincinnati Reds reinstated veteran infielder Jeimer Candelario from the 10-day injured list and promptly designated him for assignment.

The Reds signed Candelario to a three-year, $45 million deal heading into the 2024 season. Aside from the 20 home runs he hit last year, the contract will otherwise go down as a massive bust for Cincinnati. Injuries have limited Candelario to just 22 games in 2025, accompanied by an abysmal .113/.198/.213 slash line to show for it.

While signing a player who puts up those kinds of offensive numbers admittedly sounds like something Ben Cherington would do, this whole situation in Cincinnati has highlighted yet another reason (or two) Pirates fans should be envious of their division rivals.

Yes, really. Allow us to explain.

Pirates fans jealous of Reds’ Jeimer Candelario move for 2 notable reasons

First of all, the Pirates never would have signed a free agent for that amount of money to begin with. The Reds spent $45 million on what ended up being a bad signing — but at least they spent it on a need when they felt like they could contend. The $45 million Cincinnati spent on Candelario is still $6 million more than the largest free agent contract in Pirates franchise history, which was signed Francisco Liriano in 2015 (three years, $39 million).

Since Cherington took over in 2020, the Pirates haven't signed a single free agent to a contract longer than one year, opting instead to go the draft-and-develop route. Considering Pittsburgh hasn't finished higher than third in the division since 2016, it's not hard to deduce how well that worked out for them.

But let's say, for the sake of argument, that the Pirates did do the unthinkable and sign a notable free agent to a multi-year contract. Even if they did sign a player, and that player's production tanked the way Candelario's did, they wouldn't admit their mistake and DFA him. They'd let him continue to be a dead weight on their lineup for the entirety of his contract because God forbid they have to eat money they didn't want to spend in the first place.

With all due respect to the Reds, being jealous of a team that just DFA'd a $45 million player with a .113 batting average is another new low for Pirates fans. Then again, it's decisions like those that keep the Reds (and every other team in the NL Central) out of the division's basement, where the Pirates seem to be comfortable dwelling for the foreseeable future.

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