The Ramirez trade was inexcusable. Especially considering what they got in return, which essentially amounted to a box of trinkets. But that was a pure salary dump. In fact, people close to the situation say that had the Pirates not made that deal, they would have been unable to make payroll.
The problem with the Bonifay/Littlefield administration was that they poorly allocated their limited financial resources. They did attempt to sign some of their so-called "young talent," and it blew up in their faces. Case in point, they gave $60 million to Jason Kendall, a glorified singles hitter. In the end, it turned out to be a monumentally stupid decision. A decision that was driven more by PR than sound baseball rationale.
That being said, there was no way the Pirates would have been able to afford Jason Bay. And there was no way that he was going to stay here, regardless of the money they offered him. The Pirates either don't have or are completely unwilling to spend huge sums of money. Besides, the Pirates really don't have anyone worth signing to a long-term deal. In the future, McCutchen, Alvarez, etc. may warrant that kind of outlay. But right now, they don't have any player on the order of Manny Ramirez, Albert Belle, or Jim Thome.
Simply put, the Pirates, over the past 17 years, have been the worst run franchise in professional sports. There's not enough space here to list the litany of poor personnel and monetary decisions that the Pirates have made. Before Neal Huntington took over, the farm system was barren and it's still barren. It's conceivable that they could have ended up with players like B.J. Upton, Tim Lincecum, Matt Wieters, and Ryan Howard. Instead, they ended up with Bryan Bullington, Brad Lincoln, Daniel Moskos, Matt Peterson, and Ty Wigginton. This is why they're currently in such a decrepit state. And it's also why fans are so distrustful of management.
Apologies for the long post.
