Ridiculous Pirates offseason rumor has fans fully tuned out with spring training underway

The Pittsburgh Pirates had a frustratingly on-brand offseason in which they did less than the bare minimum to improve their roster heading into 2025.

The longer the Pirates went without making any meaningful moves, the more the rumor mill began to churn. This team has one of the best young starting rotations in the league; surely, they'll do something to provide them with run support... won't they?

But alas – to the surprise of absolutely no one familiar with the work of Bob Nutting, Ben Cherington and company – they would not. Still, even as spring training kicks off this week, there are still rumors circulating that are sure to pique the interest of the incurable optimists. Bless them. In fact, late Tuesday night, Dejan Kovacevic of DK Pittsburgh Sports may have just dropped the most ridiculous – if not slightly confusing – rumor yet.

"Per multiple sources here upon landing at Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport on the eve of the Pirates' pitchers and catchers reporting for spring training, they're not done yet," Kovacevic reported. "And actually, their main move of this astonishingly-even-by-their-standards underwhelming offseason, they insist, is still to come."

Now, what exactly that move might be was conveniently left out of Kovacevic's report, other than that it would "have to address the glaringly obvious need for offense in general and, within that, the even more glaringly obvious need to have it come from right field." Thank you, Captain (Glaringly) Obvious.

Ridiculous Pirates offseason rumor has fans fully tuned out with spring training underway

Kovacevic also noted that the move in question would likely involve Pittsburgh dealing from their pitching depth: "Probably a starter. Probably young. Possibly young enough to still be seen as a prospect." Considering young pitchers are about the only thing Pittsburgh has to offer potential trade partners, that shouldn't come as a surprise.

Kovacevic then followed his report with a disclaimer that... almost seems to expose the falseness of the entire thing?

"Don't hold me to this as if it's some sort of prediction," Kovacevic said. "I hate that. This is what I'm hearing in the moment from people who'd know, and that's that."

If it's not a prediction, then why even share it? This Pirates offseason has been depressing enough as it is; we don't need to add unnecessary pot-stirring on top of it.

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