Bob Smizik made waves yesterday afternoon in suggesting rumors of a Paul Maholm trade by Pirate GM Neal Huntington smelled like a "salary dump" to him.
↵↵↵The statement is curious because Huntington repeatedly has said the team was beyond the prospect accumulation mode. But all the Pirates could expect to receive from a contender for Maholm or Duke are prospects. A team in the heat of a pennant race is not likely going to subtract from what it has on its 25-man roster.
↵If that is the case, and since Maholm won’t be eligible for free agency until after 2012, a trade sounds more like a salary dump than anything else.
↵I’m not saying that is the case, and I’d like to hear more from Huntington on this. But if the team is planning on trading Maholm, I would think the $9.75 million he is due in 2012 would be the largest reason.
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Oh, did Smizik ever hear more from Huntington when the GM agreed to ADD payroll in the form of Arizona's Chris Snyder and his 5.75 million dollar contract for 2011 early this morning.
↵Over at Bucs Dugout, dtoddwin gave some solid commentary on why Smizik would attack a Maholm trade before anything concrete was even in the air: to stir the pot and add traffic and comments to his blog. That should be even more obvious now
↵The Snyder trade could turn out a total flop, but it sends a resounding message to critics: the payroll slashing is over.
↵As of this posting, Paul Maholm is still a Pirate, but even if he is traded in the coming hours, the last thing anyone will be able to say is that his contract is the motivation for the move. If Maholm changes teams today, it'll be because Neal Huntington and the front office think it makes baseball sense for the team.
↵Period.