OnlyBucs

The Pirates have agreed to a four-year deal with closer Felipe Rivero, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (on Twitter). The deal, which will buy out all of Rivero’s arbitration seasons, is believed to guarantee Rivero about $22MM in total, per Rosenthal. It also contains a pair of club options for his first two free-agent seasons.

5A7C7D6A7C6C1F0 wrote: The Pirates have agreed to a four-year deal with closer Felipe Rivero, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (on Twitter). The deal, which will buy out all of Rivero’s arbitration seasons, is believed to guarantee Rivero about $22MM in total, per Rosenthal. It also contains a pair of club options for his first two free-agent seasons.






There's the $20 million they saved from McCutchen and Cole. You can already hear NH saying that. As if the money saved this year and money they would have spent over the next 4 years is at all the same.

NH has been a busy fellow the last few days.

Thank goodness we have a closer to protect all the leads we will have. >:(

Smart signing. If Rivero has another season like last he will become a real nice trade chip come July or the offseason

From MLBTR:

Certainly, the timing of the deal comes as something of a surprise. The Bucs only just recently announced the trade of longtime top starter Gerrit Cole, and mere hours ago the team reportedly agreed to trade face of the franchise Andrew McCutchen to the Giants in exchange for righty Kyle Crick and outfield prospect Bryan Reynolds. In some respects, the timing of the moves is reminiscent of the Pirates’ salary dump of Francisco Liriano, which was quickly followed up by an extension for veteran third baseman David Freese. The long-term deal for Rivero should somewhat reduce the sting of the loss of both McCutchen and Cole in the eyes of Pirates fans, though it’s nonetheless a difficult sequence of events for Pittsburgh faithful to stomach.

5C676D664A0E0 wrote: Smart signing. If Rivero has another season like last he will become a real nice trade chip come July or the offseason




Post of the day.....no way in heck the pirates pay him this whole contract.....joke of an organization

5C5D4657410106320 wrote: From MLBTR:

Certainly, the timing of the deal comes as something of a surprise. The Bucs only just recently announced the trade of longtime top starter Gerrit Cole, and mere hours ago the team reportedly agreed to trade face of the franchise Andrew McCutchen to the Giants in exchange for righty Kyle Crick and outfield prospect Bryan Reynolds. In some respects, the timing of the moves is reminiscent of the Pirates’ salary dump of Francisco Liriano, which was quickly followed up by an extension for veteran third baseman David Freese. The long-term deal for Rivero should somewhat reduce the sting of the loss of both McCutchen and Cole in the eyes of Pirates fans, though it’s nonetheless a difficult sequence of events for Pittsburgh faithful to stomach.


The timing of this shouldn't surprise anyone. The organization traded away its face and its top trade asset in the span of two days - saving what 18 million or so? They had no choice but to appear like they care. This has been in the works for the last three days. Coincidence they announce it now? Nope. It was done for a purpose.

Rivero already is an outstanding trade chip. His value isn't going up much. Alternatively, there's a lot of room for his value to go down

6D6C7766703037030 wrote: From MLBTR:

Certainly, the timing of the deal comes as something of a surprise. The Bucs only just recently announced the trade of longtime top starter Gerrit Cole, and mere hours ago the team reportedly agreed to trade face of the franchise Andrew McCutchen to the Giants in exchange for righty Kyle Crick and outfield prospect Bryan Reynolds. In some respects, the timing of the moves is reminiscent of the Pirates’ salary dump of Francisco Liriano, which was quickly followed up by an extension for veteran third baseman David Freese. The long-term deal for Rivero should somewhat reduce the sting of the loss of both McCutchen and Cole in the eyes of Pirates fans, though it’s nonetheless a difficult sequence of events for Pittsburgh faithful to stomach.
There's no question that the moves were carefully timed. First of all the Cutch deal is announced the day after a humiliating Steelers playoff loss that has the whole city talking football. Then the positive Rivero signing is announced immediately after the negative announcement that Cutch is gone. It's all about PR.