The Pittsburgh Pirates Are Crying … Poor?

Plus: MLB Predictions, Azzi Fudd returns to UConn, Sex Testing is stupid, more.

I’m not going to say that I know Dejan Kovacevic well. I’ve had interactions with him — both good and bad. When I covered the Pirates in 2012, Dejan was also on the beat.

He’s consistently ripped the front office (remember the Hoka Hey coverage, Pirates fans?) for years.

But somewhere along the way — after time that he allegedly offered exposure on his website for a journalist in exchange for a *checks notes* threesome with his wife — Kovacevic has seemed to come out in a different way for the Pirates front office, calling for a salary cap.

I’ve made my feelings on DK known. I’m not a fan. I don’t go on Twitter, but I imagine that I’m still blocked by him (deservingly so, honestly).

But when I saw that he released an investigative report into the Pirates financials, I was intrigued.

Because personal feelings about DK aside — it’s really, really hard to do — he is one hell of a writer.

So I read the piece.

And … it was definitely a piece.

The article is titled Special report: The Pirates’ finances will leave you at a loss. Within it, DK — and his team of Pirates writers, I assume, but it only has his name on the byline — did a deep dive into the Pirates books.

The initial thought when opening this article was that the Pirates — like every single other team in baseball — are turning a profit and can afford any single player they want. But instead, teams will cry poor when they are from a small market and paint the Dodgers as the bad guys when they, in fact, can do the same.

But DK’s research says differently.

The long and short is that Kovacevic reports $146.6 million in local operating revenue, but the total operating revenue comes up to $292.4 million after looking at the revenue sharing, national TV, merchandise, and luxury tax.

What Kovacevic goes into is that the Pirates total operating expenses are at $294.6 million — meaning that the Pirates are losing $2.2 million.

It’s really good research. It’s laid out well. Flows well. Attempts a mea culpa by asking the readers to “Really, go nuts. Including on me.”

Kovacevic even says that the Pirates very reluctantly opened their books for him.

And this, Dejan, is where you lost me. You lost me more here than when you said that the Orioles approached the Pirates last season for a Jackson Holliday for Jared Jones trade (this wasn’t true at all, by the way. I, and others, have debunked this).

See, do I believe that the Pirates showed Dejan something? Yes, I do. Do I believe that the Pirates showed Dejan their actual books? 

Hell.

No.

The union isn’t even privy to those books.

When I asked another person familiar with the Pirates, here’s what they told me:

“The Pirates did not open their books to DK. He basically did a bunch of forensic accounting, using available public data, some sourced info, and making some assumptions based on what’s been leaked before and what’s out there with other teams (the Braves being public really helped) and then went to the Pirates and said ‘we think you’re broke. Are we right?’ And they said ‘yes.’”

I was going to go in here and break this down line by line like it was a John Cena heel promo, but Marc Normandin lives and breathes this shit at Baseball Prospectus and did a better job than I could ever do Breaking this down.

(Sidebar - subscribe to Baseball Prospectus. They do fantastic work, and it’s insanely cheap).

Normandin makes fantastic retorts in his piece, including the fact that the league was ready to FORFEIT THE ENTIRE SEASON INSTEAD OF OPENING THEIR BOOKS.

Normandin also highlights the difference between “we aren’t making money” and “we can’t make money.“

Well said, Marc. 

See, if the Pirates aren’t making the money that they want to, it’s because owner Bob Nutting constantly cuts corners, doesn’t spend money, and puts his general manager in an impossible situation (Ben Cherrington hasn’t exactly done great in this role) by limiting their budget.

Do you know what will make money for the Pirates?

Putting asses in seats.

How do you do this? By winning games. By having players like Bubba Chandler and Thomas Harrington in your rotation over Carmen Mlodzinski and Bailey Falter. By not trading for a first baseman with well-known injury risk in his wrists in Spencer Horwitz, leaving the position a black hole for the last decade.

By signing Paul Skenes to an extension. Or at least attempting to.

Tim Britton, of The Athletic, put together a piece for what it would take to extend Skenes. He landed on 10 years and $200 million in a well-reasoned piece, but that baseline price still feels low.

Even if it takes $280 million or $300 million or $350 million — you do it. He, alone, will bring the money back for Nutting tenfold.

I’m sure the Pirates will show you that book, Dejan.

And the most erroneous argument of all is that a salary cap would fix this.

No, it wouldn’t.

First off — we shouldn’t be limiting the amount that employees are able to make. We all deserve to get paid our worth, and a salary cap prohibits this.

Also, a cap means a floor, and with a salary floor, that means that teams like the Pirates are going to have to spend more than they are spending now, which, as Marc points out, would “assuredly be higher than their usual payroll.”

The Pirates already don’t sign free agents. How is a salary cap going to help the Pirates actually spend money on real free agents when they have to meet a salary floor.

They won’t. They’ll find their ways around the Tommy Phams of the world. The Spencer Horwitz of the world.

You know, the cheap players.

Because you can cry poor all you want. But the actual books say that you aren’t just crying poor, but you’re crying wolf, too. 

MLB Season Predictions

How did you celebrate Opening Day of the MLB season yesterday? It definitely wasn’t waiting for an early-afternoon game to start, as baseball and the powers that be decided to torture us by making us wait until 3 p.m. EST for First Pitch.

Bullshit, Rob Manfred. Bullshit.

Alas, another 162-game marathon is here, and while nearly every single site put out a bold predictions or predictions piece yesterday, I run my newsletters on Monday/Tuesday and Friday.

So I’m a day late.

But I like to consider it fashionably late.

Have you seen my shoes? C’mon, it fits.

Anywho, here are my picks for this year:

AL East:

Baltimore Orioles

Boston Red Sox

Toronto Blue Jays

New York Yankees

Tampa Bay rays

AL Central:

Detroit Tigers

Cleveland Guardians

Minnesota Twins

Kansas City Royals

Chicago White Sox (on pace for 162-0, baby!)

AL West:

Houston Astros

Seattle Mariners

Texas Rangers

Los Angeles Angels

Oakland Athletics (Always Oakland. Always)

NL East:

New York Mets

Philadelphia Phillies

Atlanta Braves

Washington Nationals

Miami Marlins

NL Central:

Chicago Cubs

Milwaukee Brewers

Cincinnati Reds

St. Louis Cardinals

Pittsburgh Pirates

NL West:

Los Angeles Dodgers

Arizona Diamondbacks

San Diego Padres

San Francisco Giants

Colorado Rockies

World Series:

Baltimore Orioles over Chicago Cubs in six games

AL MVP:

Julio Rodríguez

NL MVP:

Elly De La Cruz

AL Cy Young:

Logan Gilbert

NL Cy Young:

Zack Wheeler

AL Rookie of the Year:

Jacob Wilson

NL Rookie of the Year:

Dylan Crews

Azzi Fudd Returns to UConn

In the first half of the women’s basketball season, I have to be honest with you — I just didn’t see it with Azzi Fudd as a pro prospect.

It wasn’t fair of me. I’m aware of this. She was recovering from a serious knee injury, and it takes time to recover.

And down the stretch, Fudd was in her bag.

But the question remained — was she going to be a first-round pick in the upcoming WNBA Draft?

It would have been surprising, but not totally out of the realm of possibility with a great NCAA Tournament.

But it’s moot, as Fudd has elected to return to UConn for a final season. 

And honestly, it’s the right call.

It’s really, really hard to make a WNBA team if you’re not a first-round pick. Impossible? No, not at all. But the odds are stacked against you.

Last year, Kate Martin was one of four second-round players to actually make their team out of training camp — and Dyaisha Fair was soon cut by the Aces after the season started.

What Fudd does by returning to UConn is put herself in a better position for the 2026 draft, which, by comparison, is a weaker draft class compared to the 2025 draft class.

Not only is that in her favor to work her way up to being a potential No. 5 or No. 6 pick, but there are two other huge factors at play for Fudd’s benefit:

1. Two more teams — Portland and Toronto — will begin play next season, bringing the league total up to 15 and increasing the likelihood of Fudd going in the first round.
2. The rookie contract scale is about to change big time. The CBA is up, and the rookie scale will increase with that.

The current rookie scale is as follows:

Picks 1-4: $78,831

Picks: 5-8: $75,643

Picks 9-12: $72,455

Picks 13-24: $69,267

With the WNBA’s $2.2 billion media rights deal, the money across the league — including for rookies — is going to look a whole lot better.

It’s why players who aren’t on a rookie deal now are going to be free agents after this upcoming season. Everyone is going to eat. Everyone is going to get paid.

And for Fudd, she’s going to join them and prove herself as a 1B option next to Sarah Strong’s 1A next season at UConn.

World Athletics Reaches a New Low in Sex Testing

Earlier this week, World Athletics announced that it will introduce mandatory testing for anyone entering female competitions to verify their biological sex.

They say this is about “protecting women’s sports,” but we know that’s bullshit.

Sebastian Coe — the president of the governing body — said that “This we feel is a really important way of providing confidence and maintaining that absolute focus on the integrity of competition.”

And no, you’re not missing something.

This is one way. This isn’t testing men the same way to protect men’s sports.

Because it isn’t about protecting women’s sports.

It’s a continued push for old white men to have control over women and women’s bodies.

This comes after President (Vice President to Elon?) Donald Trump signed the “No Men in Women’s Sports” executive order in February.

What’s crazy is that Trump has more felonies (34) and sexual assault allegations (25) against him than the actual number of trans athletes in college (fewer than 10).

But alas. 

🙏 🙏 💪🏻 🇺🇸 🇺🇸

I was going to write more about the War Crime that was committed this week in The Atlantic piece, but I’m tired, man. 

Yes, that’s actual plans of a war crime.

You can’t deny that intentionally bombing an apartment building with civilians in it and then celebrating it is anything but.

But we know what’s going to happen.

Nothing. It’s only a matter of weeks — days? hours? minutes? seconds? — before the next incident happens and this is swept away.

Juju … dammit

Hey, some good news. At least the Sweet 16 is here, and we are about to see some high-levels of basketball.

It was all going perfectly until Monday night, when Juju Watkins went down in a scary moment when she tore her ACL.

It’s so unfair. She’s the face of college basketball and one of the faces of basketball in general. Windows like USC’s aren’t open forever, and this was a huge shot for them to win it all.

I have no doubt that Kiki Iriafen is going to ball out for the Trojans, but it’s going to be hard to overcome the loss of Watkins.

I’m in Birmingham, and I have some pretty fun things planned for Tournament coverage. There are a few interviews that I’ll be conducting for pieces here, The Athletic, and also at Winsidr.

So stay tuned.

Until next time. I have some fun baseball stuff coming up, as well as a few interviews in and out of the sports world.

I love you awesome nerds.