meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
DK Pittsburgh Sports: Daily podcasts on Steelers, Penguins, Pirates!

DK's Daily Shot of Pirates: The payroll truth

DK Pittsburgh Sports: Daily podcasts on Steelers, Penguins, Pirates!

DK Pittsburgh Sports

Hockey, Steelers, Penguins, Football, Nfl, Matt Williamson, Nhl, Pittsburgh, Mlb, Baseball, Dejan Kovacevic, Dk Pittsburgh Sports, Pittsburgh Penguin, Pittsburgh Pirates, Pittsburgh Steelers, Sports, Pirates

4.6832 Ratings

🗓️ 27 February 2026

⏱️ 14 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

The final payroll for 2025, meaning not projections, not opening day, not anything like that, the actual amount of money that was spent on payroll.

0:20.0

Player payroll, 2025 was 89.75 million.

0:26.9

The current projected payroll for 2026, meaning just what it's expected to be, based on the players

0:35.5

who are most likely to be on the team.

0:39.4

March 26 in New York is 105 million. Good morning to you. Good Friday morning. I'm

0:46.2

Dan Kovachovic of D.K. Pittsburgh Sports. This is Daily Shot of Pirates brought to you by

0:51.7

our friends at the North Shore Tavern, home of steak

0:54.7

on a stone. This comes your way bright and early every weekday. If you're into football and or

1:00.1

hockey, I also offer daily shots of Steelers and Penguins in the same place that you found this.

1:07.6

So the increase between last year and the coming year right now is 15 million.

1:16.6

I had reported based on a source early in the offseason that the pirates were going to be allowed.

1:25.5

Let me rephrase that, that Ben Charrington was going to be

1:27.7

allowed to spend as much as $110 million. When I reported that, you might recall, there was

1:35.9

laughter all over the place, even though I was saying, just because he's been a lot at that,

1:41.5

doesn't mean he'll actually do it. Well, I said 110 as a max. He's

1:48.1

currently at 105. I reported last week from Bradenton that they're still looking for a fifth

1:54.6

starting pitcher. I actually do expect they're going to sign one. That'll get you that much closer to

2:00.6

110. And from there,

2:02.3

there are injuries and replacements and stuff like that that naturally take the payroll higher,

2:06.4

which means they're going to end up at around 110. That, in turn, will represent an increase of

2:13.2

$20 million from last season. Now, I've thrown a lot of numbers at you here awfully early in your day, and I apologize

2:21.7

for that.

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from DK Pittsburgh Sports, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of DK Pittsburgh Sports and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.