Bell talks might be different
New management has friend in Boras
Kicking around a potential Josh Bell extension could make for a fun exercise, especially now. Ignore Pirates precedent when it comes to signing arbitration-eligible players to lucrative, longterm contracts. Scour the internet for comparables. Crunch some numbers. Start spitballing.
While the process might be entertaining, it’s also premature. Because the Pirates have a new regime and Bell is operating with a limited sample size, it simply makes too much sense for both sides to wait, to learn more about what the other wants, to let it all play out.
Secondly, the most pertinent question might be this: Will the Pirates be willing to fork over the necessary funds to keep their slugging first baseman, their Face of the Franchise, in Pittsburgh long term?
To answer that, it’s worth examining a couple factors, starting with the relationship between Bell’s agent, Scott Boras, and new Pirates general manager Ben Cherington. It’s very good, Boras believes, dating to Cherington’s time running the Boston Red Sox.
Boras also been impressed with Cherington’s handling of Bell and his contract situation thus far.
“Four days after he takes the job, what does he do? He calls me to understand Josh,” Boras said by phone Monday afternoon. “He didn’t call me to negotiate a contract. He came and talked to me for an hour and a half about Josh, about his history. He wanted to hear it from us because he knows us from Boston about how we do things.”
That conversation — which covered Bell and his role, how both sides view him and his immense talent and also the 27-year-old Irving, Texas, native’s off-field interests — was very much appreciated by Boras. The gist of the conversation was then relayed to Bell.
“I called Josh and said, ‘Your general manager called me about you. He feels you’re a critical part of their future. They’re interested in
building a core. They want to get to know you and do this and that,’ Boy does that make a player feel good.”
Let’s take a step back and examine what Boras is saying: Cherington placed a call to the agent of arguably his best player and immediately laid the groundwork for something important, transitioning over a relationship he had built with a World Serieswinning, big-market club.
Not only did Boras not hang up the phone, but he liked what Cherington had to say, respected it and appreciated where the Pirates’ new man in charge was coming from — essentially they need to learn about a lot of things, and Bell is no exception.
Furthermore, if you look at the trajectory of Bell’s career, it also makes sense to wait and let this thing play out:
• Bell became a regular in 2017 and hit 26 home runs with 90 RBIs in 159 games, finishing third in National League Rookie of the Year voting.
• Two years ago, when Bell hit just 12 home runs in 501 atbats, he endured a step back.
• Last summer was Bell’s breakout campaign, when he was arguably baseball’s best player entering the All-Star break but struggled to do much after it, eventually having his season cut short because of injury.
Couple those peaks and valleys with what Bell has endured defensively — changing positions, then struggling at first, only to overhaul his throwing motion entering spring training a couple months ago — and it doesn’t make a ton of sense to do something now.
Have a great offensive season, show improvement in the field and Bell could stand to make a lot of money, either from the Pirates or someone else.
The Pirates can actually pull here from how they handled Gerrit Cole. We’ll leave the pitching development part for another day, but just look at the timing of the trade.
The Pirates didn’t have to do that deal when they did. Even if they knew Cole would be out of their price range, they had him under contract; they could have kicked the can and made the best out of the situation for another year, prioritizing performance above all.
That said, things obviously weren’t perfect. There was unhappiness on Cole’s side stemming from his contract during the 2016 season — a meager $541,000 — despite finishing fourth in NL Cy Young voting.
But the point here isn’t so much Cole as it is new leadership
and how things could differ with Bell — another Boras client who, like Cole and Pedro Alvarez, has close ties through the draft to former scouting director and current special assistant Greg Smith, whom Boras greatly respects.
“Guys like [Smith] are the foundations to a successful franchise,” Boras said. “The reason is they have a gut for players beyond their skill.”
As the Pirates approach the idea of potentially signing Bell long-term, they will likely have to do something out of character by spending a large chunk of money, almost assuredly topping Jason Kendall’s franchiserecord $60 million extension from 2000.
Driving that train, again, is a general manager familiar with what it takes to build a sustained model for winning. Above Cherington is president Travis Williams, who experienced that firsthand with the Penguins, and owner Bob Nutting, who addressed the possibility of increasing payroll at PiratesFest in late January.
“I think what we want to make sure is when we have an opportunity to really put the foot on the gas, we’re able to do it,” Nutting told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, later adding, “I think we have a solid core, but we need to build around it. We need to supplement.”
Building around a core doesn’t mean removing one of the key components of it, a simple-yet-important piece of logic that Cherington seemed to support when he spoke at Grapefruit League Media Day a couple weeks later.
“I’m confident [payroll] will increase over time as we get deeper into our team build, there’s opportunity, and we get closer with those opportunities,” Cherington said. “I’m confident we’ll have the means to build a winning team and add pieces. We’re not putting any kind of date on when that could happen. We’re going to try and get there as soon as we can.”
Would Cherington take this job knowing he’d soon have to trade his best hitter? Do you think he spent two decades developing a sterling reputation around baseball, then suddenly got stupid when he started talking to Nutting?
Cherington has work to do — with the draft, development, internationally and more. He’s also well-aware that winning costs money. The trick will be how this year plays out, then potentially finding common ground when negotiations start.
But the key question remains: Are the New Pirates willing to function differently than the old ones?
“I think Bob now has a platform of information that’s available to him that will allow him a new constitution for Pittsburgh,” Boras said. “He’s going to have to make major decisions that are based upon advisement, and he’ll have to determine if the information he’s given is reliable and trusted to where he’ll feel differently about it than he has in the past.
“But you have to have your bill of success. Each one of those bills that create the Pittsburgh constitution has to be created by men who have a trusted history. I think Smitty is a person who has that history. And, frankly, I think Ben does as well.”
• Statistically speaking: Bell’s 37 home runs were the most by a Pirates player since Brian Giles hit 38 in 2002. His 116 RBIs were the most since Giles had 123 in 2000.
• Know this: Bell’s 60 extra-base hits before the 2019 All-Star break were the most ever for a National League player.
• They said it: “Y’all have been talking about that for a couple of years, but I’ll take it with open arms. That’s definitely a cool aspect, just going around CARE-a-van and seeing my jerseys 90 minutes away, two hours away was definitely kind of cool. Hopefully, there’s more of that to come.” — Bell on being considered the face of the franchise.
EDITOR’S NOTE — With MLB hoping to return soon, the PostGazette’s Jason Mackey and Mike Persak will analyze 20 issues related to the Pirates. They’ll run each weekday online through May 22 and will appear in print (or via other PG digital platforms) on Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.