A WHOLE LOT OF NOTHIN’

him was excellent down the stretch.

The Francisco Liriano trade, which included two top-10 prospects in Harold Ramirez and Reese McGuire (Ramirez was ranked in the top 100 in baseball by Baseball America before that season) for the sole purpose of dumping the $17 million still owed the lefty angered fans to no end, especially given that all they received in return was Drew Hutchison. The positive outcome was using some of the money saved to re-sign Nova.

“We obviously approached the [2017] trade deadline from a similar mindset as we did a year ago,” Huntington said. “We wanted to respect the positive signs from this 2017 club. … In terms of the current club, we’ve got a large number of young players that are playing key roles for us. They’re learning. They’re developing, and they’re getting better every day.”

This season, the Pirates have saved:

$15,988.37 for every day Jung Ho Kang is on the restricted list, about $2 million.

$2.5 million during Starling Marte’s suspension.

About $2 million because they cut Jared Hughes when they did.

They have not reapplied that to the major league payroll. They did not add a fourth outfielder after Marte’s April suspension. That saved money stands in contrast to the Pirates’ attendance this season: an average of 24,159 through Thursday, 24th in baseball and 3,600 less than last season, a drop that will result in less revenue.

Under owner Bob Nutting, the Pirates have both added salary and traded prospects at previous deadlines — $8.5 million and three minor leaguers in 2015, $16.3 million and four minor leaguers in ’12. This year there was no move for 2017 or ’18. The prospects acquired are 18 and 21 and several years away.

“We had a number of conversations to add more to the 2017 club,” Huntington said. “The challenge was that Benoit was the only conversation that came to fruition.”