Pittsburgh Pirates Wake Up Call: Gayo’s downfall not an indictment on Pirates

In our daily Wake-Up Call, we get you ready for the day with a complete look at all things Pittsburgh Pirates.

Last week, the Pittsburgh Pirates announced that they would not renew the contract of their director of Lain American scouting Rene Gayo due to an MLB investigation finding financial improprieties on Gayo’s part.

The news was reported everywhere in Pittsburgh Pirates and MLB circles across many different outlets, including this one. After The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal first broke the news, the quickly-forming consensus was that Gayo’s actions that led to his dismissal would not result in any blowback on the Pirates organization itself. In fact, Rosenthal reported as much.

Yet, there is still a cross-section of the Pittsburgh media that will gleefully take the opportunity to throw mud against 115 Federal Street. Confident that it will stick, the dismissal allows such interested parties to tack on their criticisms of Bob Nutting, Neal Huntington and his various associates.

They will put these things to print, almost to the point of suggesting that Huntington wanted Gayo to “get caught.”  The picture that is painted is one of pure glee.

Uhm, what?

What would the current Pittsburgh Pirates front office gain from Gayo’s actions coming to light?

Don’t even think about wasting brainpower on answering that question, because the answer is a resounding, concrete, unequivocal nothing.

After two consecutive black mark seasons, the club would have liked nothing more than a quiet, productive off-season. They have enough on their plate in finding the next edge, the next market inefficiency, that will help them catch up to a game that has already caught up to their playing-field leveling ways.

Gayo’s dismissal is an unfortunate, almost sad situation. His contributions to the Pittsburgh Pirates cannot be understated. There is absolutely no denying his role in bringing this organization back from the depths.

But, based on Rosenthal’s reporting, he made some grave mistakes. And he will pay the price for those mistakes, starting by losing his position with Pittsburgh.

This is really not that difficult.

Baseball talk on the web

• Jon Morosi dips a toe into the evolving reliever market in his latest column.
• Evan Grant does the same, but looks at the lower-end of the starting pitcher market for the Texas Rangers to consider.
• David Laurila of Fangraphs talks to Washington Nationals GM Mike Rizzo about the team’s push into analytics.

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