Pirates general Neal Huntington said Sunday that he “will gladly” put the team’s savings from absent players back into the team.
The Pirates are estimated to save $5.3 million this year due to the absences of Starling Marte (PED suspension) and Jung-Ho Kang (DUI arrest in South Korea) and the release of Jared Hughes.
This is good, I guess.
It’s certainly a worthwhile question to ask and report on, and Huntington answered the question honestly. What I find a little troublesome about these kinds of comments is that the Pirates are in a position of needing a relatively small amount of money to open up in order to spend that amount on the ballclub, even if the team stands to benefit greatly beyond the initial expense (i.e. a pennant race or playoff appearance). And this isn’t a huge amount of money for a major league baseball team we’re talking about.
If your significant other found a quarter on the ground and was like, “Oh good, now I can get you a nicer birthday present,” you wouldn’t expect to get a very nice present at all. That’s how I feel when $5.3 million dollars become available to the Pittsburgh Pirates.