Bob Nutting’s cheapness is on full display in Pirates latest roster move

It felt as if the 2024 Pittsburgh Pirates had a chance to give fans some hope for the first time in a long time. The team was in the hunt to finish with a winning record for the first time since 2018, and maybe even make it to the postseason for the first time since 2015. Armed with a big three of Paul Skenes, Jared Jones and Mitch Keller, Pittsburgh's rotation had a ceiling that could be rivaled by few, if any teams.

The Pirates' issue was their lineup; the team was in dire need of some offensive upgrades to surround the likes of Bryan Reynolds and Oneil Cruz. But to the surprise of virtually nobody, team owner Bob Nutting cheaped out: Instead of pursuing a big-name target like Luis Robert Jr. or even Jazz Chisholm Jr., Pittsburgh wound up acquiring players like Bryan De La Cruz and Isiah Kiner-Falefa. While sure, they were upgrades over what the team had on paper, they seemingly weren't going to be enough to will Pittsburgh into the postseason even with that impressive starting rotation.

Sure enough, the Pirates finished with a 76-86 record, landing in the NL Central cellar for the fourth time in the last six years. They didn't come close to sniffing the playoffs. But hey: While the Pirates' trades weren't good enough, they did, at the very least, involve players with more than one year of club control. Kiner-Falefa is under contract through the 2025 season, and De La Cruz came with three additional years of cheap club control. Or so we thought.

De La Cruz struggled mightily in his short Pirates stint, to the point where Pittsburgh made the decision to non-tender him on Friday, allowing the 27-year-old to reach free agency. This decision turned an already disappointing trade deadline into an absolute disaster, and it's all because of Nutting's cheapness.

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Pirates latest roster move is the latest proof that Pittsburgh has a Bob Nutting problem

In Pittsburgh's defense, De La Cruz was going to receive a pretty healthy raise. Anthony Franco of MLB Trade Rumors projected the outfielder to receive $4 million in arbitration. That's a lot of money for a player who had a .512 OPS and was worth -1.2 bWAR in 44 games with the Pirates in 2024.

With that being said, though, did this really have to happen? Yes, De La Cruz struggled mightily in his two months in Pittsburgh, but they really couldn't give him any more time to turn things around? This is a player who hit 18 home runs in 105 games with the Miami Marlins before the trade. Reynolds, Cruz and Andrew McCutchen were the only three players on the roster to hit more home runs throughout the entire season.

If the season started today, there's a good chance that Joshua Palacios, a player with a .650 career OPS in just 150 games played across parts of four seasons, would be their starting right fielder. The Pirates can probably do better than him for $4 million, but can they do better than De La Cruz for $4 million? Does anyone really trust Nutting to spend more than $4 million to address this very clear need?

Letting De La Cruz go if it meant the Pirates splurging on a real difference-maker in right field would make a lot of sense, but if they were serious about adding a real difference-maker, wouldn't they have done that at the trade deadline instead of settling on De La Cruz in the first place?

As bad as De La Cruz was in Pittsburgh, he did show during parts of four seasons with the Marlins that he has decent offensive upside. Given how subpar Pittsburgh's offense was this past season, it doesn't make much sense to let him go without a clear upgrade in mind. Unfortunately, with Nutting in charge, it feels as if the Pirates will do very little when it comes to replacing him. The cheaper they get, the more likely it is that their dominant rotation will go to waste.