At the end of February, the Pirates responded to the lawsuit brought by the MLBPA:
“The MLBPA’s grievance against the Pirates is patently baseless,” said Pirates president Frank Coonelly in a written statement. “We look forward to demonstrating as much to the arbitrator if the MLBPA continues to pursue this meritless claim.
“As indicated when the MLBPA first expressed its ‘concern’ in a press release, the Pirates have always invested its revenue sharing receipts in a manner entirely consistent with the basic agreement.”
“It is regrettable and that the MLBPA would react to a free agent market that is apparently not to its liking by filing a frivolous grievance against a club that has continued to invest heavily in all areas of its baseball operations notwithstanding steadily diminishing revenue sharing receipts.”
To cap it off, the Pirates came out of the gate hot, and today spoiled the Cubs home opener, winning 8-5. Corey Dickerson, who basically is the replacement for Andrew McCutchen is hitting .342/.359/.605 after going 3 for 5 Tuesday afternoon with a double. McCutchen is hitting just .231/.250/.359 for the Giants. Yes, these are small sample sizes, but if the Pirates are intrinsically a .400 club, this 8-2 start probably pulls them up to 69 wins for the season, a .426 winning percentage. That’s not tanking, that’s just a meh season. Getting a better player for one you let go, and at a better price, is what winning teams are supposed to do.
Do you know if the agreement spells out WHEN the teams need to use their money? I’m wondering if it’s possible that a team could wait and spend the money later… like, if they make a trade in July for a more expensive player, can they start spending it then? Whether or not the Pirates have spent it all, this could be a way teams could spend it? I haven’t heard anything anywhere that says teams must spend it during the first offseason or anything.
Devon » I think they are supposed to use it to improve the team on the field.