Pittsburgh Pirates GM Neal Huntington Hints At 2017 Budget Tightness

In an appearance on the Pittsburgh Pirates radio flagship, general manager Neal Huntington hinted at a tight budget for the club in 2017.

By his own admission, Pittsburgh Pirates general manager Neal Huntington had a bad offseason heading into the 2016 season. As the GM went through an appearance yesterday with the Cook and Poni show on the team’s flagship radio station, it became clear that he may be in for another tough go of things.

The near 15-minute spot was a familiar assortment of end-of-season clearinghouse topics and touched on items such as Drew Hutchison‘s future with the club, Jameson Taillon‘s debut and more. However, it was a comment towards the end of the discussion that might provide the biggest takeaway in regards to the team’s 2017 plans.

When asked by co-host Ron Cook on whether or not he “kicks himself” for not bringing back J.A. Happ and for trading Francisco Liriano – who has rebounded with the Toronto Blue Jays, Huntington had this response:

[perfectpullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””] The first year of Happ’s 3 year deal was better than [the first year of ] Liriano’s three year deal. Do I wish the process had played out different with JA? Absolutely. Torotno was extremely aggressive, so tip your cap to them. I’m accountable for that. For Francisco, we talked at the time of the trade, that at shorter exposure such as the AL Wild Card game the stuff ticks up. The AL hitters don’t know him. They were chasing him out of hte zone at a 10 percent higher clip than hitters were doing earlier this year. The results – had we had those results in Pittsburgh, he would still be in Pittsburgh.[/perfectpullquote] [perfectpullquote align=”full” cite=”Pittsburgh Pirates GM Neal Huntington” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””] Hindsight is always perfect; but, sure, given the one year of JA Happ, he would have looked good in a Pirate uniform. Had we kept Francisco and he continued to struggle, our budget would be extremely tight for next year. It’s going to be tight anyway. But it would have been extremely tight, we wouldn’t have been able to make the Freese move. We wouldn’t have been able to do a couple of other things. [/perfectpullquote]

As noted here and elsewhere, the Pittsburgh Pirates have ten veterans under contract for 2017, totaling $59.2 Million in salary. The club has six players who will go through arbitration. After factoring in likely arbitration raises coupled with pre-arb salaries from players such as Taillon, Tyler Glasnow and Josh Bell, numerous salary estimates show that the team will have an estimated payroll of about $93.8 million.

“GM-Speak” or Something Else?

In that light, Huntington’s comments raise an eyebrow at the very least. By Huntington’s own comments, the Liriano trade – while not primarily financially motivated – provided financial flexibility.

Claiming that a budget might be ‘tight’ with less than $95 million projected will not induce confidence in Pittsburgh Pirates fans. Could this be labelled as more “GM-speak,” or could the Pirates’ payroll actually decrease year-to-year for the first time since before the Huntington era? The team spent approximately $105 million in 2016 on player payroll according to Spotrac, and to imagine this team competing with anything less is a reach. To be absolutely fair, Huntington did not hint that the club was done building its 2017 roster before it even begins doing so. Huntington has repeatedly been on record that the team hopes to add a veteran starter, among other pieces.

What we do know is this. Attendance at PNC Park is no longer trending up.

With a below-market value TV deal, the Pittsburgh Pirates rely on attendance to drive payroll. For the first time since 2011, the Pirates have drawn less to PNC Park than the previous year. This brings to an end an upwards-trend that many teams would love to have had. This fact alone could greatly impact the club’s 2017 plans. Help is on the way. The Pirates will receive a sizable cut from the sale of MLB Advanced Media, but there is no firm date for that payout. The cut is proportional regardless, meaning that all clubs will receive the same share.

Effects on Season Ticket Holders

Huntington’s comments have already started to affect the purchasing decisions of season ticket holders. One such seat-holder reached out to Pirates Breakdown anonymously to describe how the GM’s words have affected his purchasing decision for 2017.

[perfectpullquote align=”full” cite=”Pirates season ticket holder” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]I am strongly considering going from a full season to a half season. Which would mean sacrificing my prime location on the aisle in the padded dugout seat section. Those seats aren’t easy to come by, and take years to get into. But it’s difficult to justify the cost, when Huntington is trumpeting a strategy that is based on players performing at or above their ceiling across the board. After years of supporting his approach, I’m failing to see it progress to expanded investment on their part.[/perfectpullquote]

No matter the factors that go into it – nor the reasoning behind it – the Pittsburgh Pirates’ payroll will always be front and center. If we take Huntington’s comments at face value, the GM has just thrown gasoline on a perpetually burning fire.