Despite being all out of everything with just days to go in the 2024 regular season, the Pirates managed to make news in the most negative way on Tuesday when it was announced that veteran first baseman Rowdy Tellez was DFA’d (Designated For Assignment).

In baseball lingo, that means Tellez, 29, was released. He’s no longer a Pirate. He’s free to sign with whomever he wants, even though, he can’t because it’s too late in the season. Besides, I’m guessing there isn’t much of a postseason need for a portly first baseman with occasional power, an underwhelming batting average, no speed, and the versatility to pitch when his team is getting blown out late in games.

Veteran outfielder Michael A. Taylor was also released. Still, Tellez’s departure made headlines after word leaked that four more plate appearances would have earned him a $200,000 bonus, per the conditions of the one-year, $3.2 million contract he signed with Pittsburgh last offseason. The number of plate appearances needed to trigger the bonus was 425, and Tellez came into Tuesday at 421. With six games left in the season, it was either sit Tellez for the remainder of the year and deal with his wrath personally or release him and endure some wrath publically.

If you’ve been paying attention to Bob Nutting since he became the majority owner of the Pirates in 2007, he doesn’t give a damn about enduring public wrath–including the media and fans.

The media and fans have been telling Nutting to sell the team for at least 12 years, and he’s just sat back and collected his money while doing the bare minimum to make his team and organization more competitive.

The results have been so-so, as in so-so infrequent. The Bucs had three years in the mid-2010s when they were one of the best teams in Major League Baseball, winning over 90 games twice, clinching a spot in the National League Wild Card Game three years in a row, and appearing in the National League Divisional Series once. The organization didn’t get over the top, but it achieved way more than it had during its stretch of 20 consecutive losing seasons that began in 1993.

But if you paid attention to how Nutting and his then-general manager, Neal Huntington, conducted business, then you know it was the perfect storm of drafting, development, and effective bargain shopping that made Pittsburgh a true contender. First of all, Andrew McCutchen, a number-one pick in 2005, had established himself as one of baseball’s best players by the early 2010s, even winning the NL MVP in 2013. A.J. Burnett, a veteran pitcher the Pirates acquired in a trade prior to the 2012 campaign, was being paid most of his salary by the team that traded him: The Yankees. McCutchen and Burnett were the foundation of what would become a postseason team, and the Pirates just supplemented them with a bunch of good-to-very-good talent that meshed well together at just the right time.

The Pirates didn’t do much to add salary during their three-year run. Yes, they acquired effective talent but never truly went all-in to win it all.

Instead of trying to keep the team together following a 98-win season in 2015, the Pirates parted ways with key pieces, and that was that.

The Pirates have been trying to draft, develop, and effectively bargain shop ever since, and the results have been less than desirable.

Pittsburgh has some promising young talent to work with now, including the best pitcher on the planet in rookie Paul Skenes. However, Nutting isn’t going to do much to supplement his youthful roster other than hope it’s eventually good enough to win on its own.

You may have been happy with the moves that the current general manager, Ben Cherrington, made at the deadline in late July, but you may have also noticed the financial side of things. Bryan De La Cruz, acquired in a trade with the Marlins, has years of control before he hits free agency. Pittsburgh may have traded for Isiah Kiner-Falefa and most of his two-year, $15 million contract, but it also dealt pitcher Martin Perez and a good bit of his one-year, $8 million contract.

Pinching pennies is just how the Pirates do things, and that’s never going to change.

If the Pirates win over the next few years, great! If they don’t, oh well. Either way, the whole thing will ultimately be blown up.

Those fans still willing to stick around will have to endure another rebuild.

Back to Tellez and the $200,000 bonus he was denied. Why is anyone surprised by that? Where is this outrage coming from? Shouldn’t you be numb to it all by now? Don’t you remember the article The Athletic published about Nutting in February, the one where an anonymous source said he was once so frugal that he waited to make a trade just so he could save $30,000? That same article talked about the time the Huntington regime asked Nutting to upgrade the spring training facilities; Nutting said the money had to come out of the amount that had already been allocated to baseball operations, meaning, it hindered any chances of increasing the payroll.

In the wake of that article, how could anyone think Nutting isn’t anything but an owner who is only concerned with making a profit, no matter the consequences–including backlash from his players, the media, and the fans?

Cherrington spoke to the media on Tuesday and insisted that the release of Tellez had nothing to do with finances. In other words, he lied to us, but he knew that we knew he was lying.

I really don’t care about Tellez. I’m sure he’ll be fine. But to echo the sentiments of many others: Why would any high-priced free agent ever want to come to Pittsburgh? Thankfully, we’ll never have to worry about that, because even if a valuable free agent did want to play for the Pirates, they’d just turn around and sign the next Rowdy Tellez, instead.