This is a preview of the Joe Sheehan Baseball Newsletter, an e-mail newsletter about all things baseball, featuring analysis and opinion about the game on and off the field from the perspective of the informed outsider.
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I read your newsletter item about Derek Shelton’s firing the other day, and saw your social posts about Paul Skenes deserving a mercy trade. And it made me wonder: From your perspective, is there any chance, under current ownership, that a different GM could come in and execute a successful rebound/rebuild before Skenes departs? Or is this organization so bad that it wouldn’t be possible?
Regardless of financial constraints… it is shocking to me that a GM of Ben Cherington’s experience could have executed so badly over the past five-plus years, in the draft and in trades and even in free agency, that we would now find ourselves in this position yet again.
-- Mike F.
I do not. This fish stinks from the head. You could put the illicit love child of Billy Beane and Theo Epstein in that role, and it would not matter. I understand the frustration with Cherington, who has squandered a fair amount of draft capital during his time running the Pirates, but he is not the problem here.
Cherington will probably lose his job next, and whoever takes over will inherit a decent core but an ownership unwilling to make investments around that core, limiting the Pirates’ upside. We saw this with the mid-2010s teams, which were very good, filling PNC Park, and which went unsupported by ownership. I believe the largest free-agent contract the Pirates have given out is still Francisco Liriano’s $40 million or so deal. That’s not Ben Cherington’s fault.
There is only one answer here, and that’s for Bob Nutting to sell. I instead think he will stick around and try to help get a payroll cap and increased local revenue sharing in the 2027 CBA negotiations. Until then, Pirates fans will suffer. I’m truly sorry, man. It’s a great baseball city.
--J.
