There are multiple avenues available for organizations to acquire talent. One of those avenues is through free agency, which has not often been the Pittsburgh Pirates path of choice.
In terms of volume, the 2021-2022 off-season was actually one of the most active for the Pirates when they signed seven players to major league contracts for a combined $16.225M guaranteed. That amount is almost equal to the total amount spent over the prior four off-seasons combined in guaranteed major league contracts that comes to $16.55M.
In the 2016-2017 off-season, the Pirates only signed two free agents — Ivan Nova and Daniel Hudson — for a combined $37M guaranteed that broke down to roughly $14.167M in AAV. The previous off-season the Pirates handed out less in guaranteed, $22.4M, but was $18.4M in AAV mostly due to another instance of volume with six free agents signed and John Jaso receiving two years at $8M.
The Pirates signing of Carlos Santana for one year at $6.725M in the grand scheme of things isn’t a lot, but to a team like the Pirates, it’s a shift from their norm. That is already more guaranteed in a single off-season than three of the previous five off-seasons. If they were to sign a Kyle “Not Kirk” Gibson for more than $1.2M, it would be more than four of the five previous with the 2021-2022 off-season being the lone holdout.
Overall, and especially over the past five years, this is not an area we’re used to as fans. It’s refreshing. There was the “Trade We Can Hopefully Soon Forget” that brought in Chris Archer, but even that was proceeded by the Pirates trading Andrew McCutchen just prior to the 2018 season.
Even at this moment, fans still fear that the Pirates could trade Bryan Reynolds. But with that, there’s been rumors of the Pirates seeking to add. That the Pirates have had conversations with free agents like Kyle Gibson. That Ben Cherington wants to improve the 2023 roster.
This isn’t to say we should expect a contender. There is still a lot of areas the Pirates need to improve upon for that to happen, which was an area covered during Thursday’s Roundtable: Can The Pirates Have a Winning Season in 2023?
Question becomes whether they’ll seek to add any significant free agents or trade acquisitions from now till the beginning of the season. Even the term “significant” is relative. Was adding Ji-man Choi and Carlos Santana significant? The answer to that is subjective whether you focus on the fact it’s an upgrade from players like Bligh Madris, Diego Castillo, or Ben Gamel receiving first base repetitions, or in comparison to what value an above average everyday first baseman like Jose Abreu provides.
The Winter Meetings begin this Sunday and there will surely be plenty of rumors going around. This could be a time where Ben Cherington has face-to-face conversations with other GM’s and decides to pull the trigger on a trade or two, and it could also be a time where he decides to sign another free agent.
Time will tell, but for the time being, the beginning of the off-season has had a little more positive outlook than has become expected over recent off-seasons.
