Insider Proposes Rule Change That Could Impact Pirates
The Pittsburgh Pirates' perennial lack of spending has been a persistent point of criticism toward the franchise. Could that change in the coming years?
MLB insider Ken Rosenthal proposed adding a salary floor of $100 or $120 million when a new Collective Bargaining Agreement is agreed to. Along with the salary floor, Rosenthal also proposed that teams who don't meet that threshold should be punished for not doing so.
"How about making the penalties that much harsher at the top and instituting a series of penalties at the bottom?" Rosenthal said on Foul Territory. "For instance, the Pirates go under a certain payroll level, let's say $100 million, just for the sake of discussion, maybe $120 [million], then you lose draft picks, you pay money, whatever the penalties we want to institute might be. That, to me, is a solution."
The current CBA is up in 2027.
As things currently stand, the Pirates only have $63.71 million allocated to their 2025 payroll, the fifth lowest in baseball, per Spotrac. They're one of 10 teams that currently wouldn't meet the $100 million salary threshold for the upcoming season. Pittsburgh's current payroll is a steep decrease from last season when it was at $84.05 million in 2024.
Adding a CBA floor would force Pittsburgh to spend more money every year in free agency, which would likely be music to the ears of Pirates fans. While the Pirates have done a better job of keeping homegrown talent like right-handed pitcher Mitch Keller, outfielder Bryan Reynolds and third baseman Ke'Bryan Hayes by signing them to extensions, their lack of activity in free agency, especially with them having young pitchers of Paul Skenes and Jared Jones' caliber on their staff.
On the heels of back-to-back 76-86 seasons, there was a semblance of hope Pittsburgh could be more active in free agency. To date, it has only re-signed Andrew McCutchen and signed left-handed reliever Caleb Ferguson to a one-year deal.
With a salary floor, the Pirates would almost be forced to spend in free agency to improve the team and that could be exactly what they need to build around what could be one of the best young starting rotations in baseball.
