Pirates' cheap, disgraceful operations swindle former Angels folk hero out of bonus

The entire season, the baseball world was relatively confused as to why the Pittsburgh Pirates were rolling with Andrew Heaney in their rotation over several of their prized prospects. Thomas Harringon was being sent back-and-forth between Triple-A Indianapolis and MLB, Bubba Chandler was wasting away in Indy all year before being promoted as a reliever and Hunter Barco is a 24-year-old starter at Triple-A and is the team's No. four prospect. The Pirates could have begun building one of the sport's best rotations earlier in the season with any one of those players surrounding Paul Skenes, Mitch Keller, Mike Burrows and Braxton Ashcraft.

The Pirates fired Derek Shelton early in the season, but that did not do much of anything to change their fortunes. Their lineup has not produced a single league-average hitter all season and the Milwaukee Brewers, Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds and even the St. Louis Cardinals ran roughshod over Pittsburgh all year long. All the while, Andrew Heaney was gobbling up innings for the Pirates all year, even as the team looked doomed from the beginning. The Pirates did not trade Heaney at the deadline like they did Ke'Bryan Hayes, David Bednar and Bailey Falter. Well, they finally did cut ties with Heaney and right before he was about to hit an incentives-based bonus in his Pirates contract.

Pirates' cheap, disgraceful operations swindle former Angels folk hero out of bonus

Despite Pittsburgh's best efforts of moving him to the bullpen recently, Heaney hit 120.1 innings pitched and received a $50K check for clearing that threshold. However, the Pirates were not going to risk Heaney hitting 130 innings pitched and earning another $100K performance bonus. Heaney was designated for assignment by the Pirates, and it was not the first time the organization cheaped out on a veteran player.

1B/DH Rowdy Tellez feels Heaney's pain, and maybe the two will even reunite in Texas following Heaney's DFA -- the Rangers just saw Nathan Eovaldi go down with an injury that will cost him the rest of the regular season (he could return in the postseason, should the Rangers make a run), so it's plausible the Rangers claim Heaney off waivers or shortly after he clears. Tellez was also let go by the Pirates right before he hit an incentive-based bonus last season.

Angels pains are perpetually in pain by the way Arte Moreno and John Carpino run the organization, but at least they do not have to deal with Robert Nutting's practices. The Angels are clearly a more desirable team to free agents and potential trade targets, as they do not pull stunts like this.

Heaney was one of the very, very few pitchers who came through for the Angels from 2015-2021. The southpaw totaled 569.1 innings pitched, and posted a 4.51 ERA, 4.25 FIP and 1.25 WHIP during his Angels tenure. At the 2021 trade deadline, the Angels dealt him to the Yankees in exchange for Janson Junk and Elvis Peguero. That was a great return for the Angels, but Junk and Peguero only started thriving once leaving LAA. Junk, Peguero and Adam Seminaris were traded to Milwaukee before the 2023 season. Peguero became a key cog in the Brewers' bullpen during the 2023 and 2024 seasons. Junk has been killing it with the Miami Marlins this season, as he became one of the best-strike throwers in the sport.

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