Lots of good reviews for Pirates Fest over the weekend, lots of smiles, lots of

calm, reasonable questions with the management Q&A.

It's almost as if everybody's just okay with what they've done this offseason to date.

Good morning to you. Good. Monday morning, I'm Dan Kovachovich of D.K. Pittsburgh Sports.

This is Daily Shot of Pirates, presented by our friends over at the North Shore Tavern.

Comes your way bright and early every weekday. If you're into football and or hockey, I also

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

that the last good thing that you saw or the last bad thing that you saw resonates in the human

brain. It just does. So I understand everybody

saying, hey, there's Ben Charrington sitting there. I'm not going to ask him about trades that are

five or six years old. I'm not going to ask him about why it took so long to fire the Latin

American scouting director when he couldn't produce any talent.

I'm not going to ask him about anything that isn't this offseason.

And this offseason, because the pirates have added Ryan O'Hern, have added Brandon Lowe,

and have at least succeeded in giving off the illusion that they've raised payroll and they've spent some

significant additional money. Now, there's some warm and fuzzy that comes with that.

Here's the problem. It still isn't accurate. It still isn't the case. We're going to try this

again, and if you're new, this will be very much

worthwhile. But the Pirates payroll in the 2025 season was exactly 89.75 million. That's the amount

that was actually put out. That was the amount that was actually put out.

That was the amount that was spent.

The current projected payroll for the 2026 season, according to fan graphs, and actually according to a lot of different places, is $95 million.

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