BRADENTON, Fla. — After an offseason in which he expressed frustrations with the direction of the Pirates, Josh Harrison arrived at Pirate City for spring training Sunday morning.
His opinion, though, clearly hasn't changed.
Harrison received phone calls from Clint Hurdle and Neal Huntington last month after the 30-year-old infielder released a statement stating he'd prefer to be traded if the club didn't intend to win in 2018. Both his manager and general manager tried to sell Harrison on the idea that trading away the face of the franchise and No. 1 starting pitcher did not change the objective.
However, Harrison still doesn't sound sold.
Speaking to reporters for the first time since Andrew McCutchen and Gerrit Cole were traded, Harrison wouldn't say if he wants to remain with the franchise, and he made it clear he's not entirely convinced there is a commitment to winning.
"At the end of the day, there really wasn’t anything said or done that was like, ‘Ah, man, I can breathe easy,’" Harrison said. "But I can always breathe easy. I sleep well. As I mentioned, there are more important things to me. I've got my wife and two kids. On the flipside, this is what I love to do. [Huntington] talked to me, said he wants to win, this or that. At the end of the day, it’s about action, not speaking."
An All-Star last season, Harrison batted .272 with a .339 on-base percentage, 16 home runs and 47 RBI before a broken finger ended his season in September. He was the subject of trade rumors for a second consecutive offseason, but a deal never materialized.
Huntington didn't rule out trading Harrison, despite how a trade may look after the veteran spoke critically of the organization.
"Our focus is putting this team in position to win a World Series," Huntington told reporters Sunday. "As I said the day Josh requested the trade, he wants to win, and he wants to do the right thing for the Pirates. We want to win and we want to do the right thing for the Pirates. If that day comes where the right thing is to trade player X or player Y, as hard, as cold and as calculating as that sounds, then those are decisions we’ll make. Not every single time, but those are decisions we have to be open to making. In terms of this year, where we are and where we go forward, we want to win and we want to do the right thing for the Pirates."
Harrison isn't the first Pirates player to speak publicly about frustrations with the direction of the organization. During a 20-minute interview Friday morning, David Freese told reporters that the club has lacked a commitment to winning the past two seasons, from ownership to the players.
Harrison agreed with Freese's comments, saying the two players spoke about those issues throughout last season, but Harrison chose not to be outspoken because he didn't feel it was his place to do so with McCutchen and Cole still on the roster.
When both players were traded, though, Harrison said there was an ongoing lack of communication from the front office to the players. Freese told reporters that he did not receive a phone call from the front office last month until after Harrison's statement was released.
After all, Harrison voiced his concerns with management, including a lack of communication with players' roles on the team and the direction of the organization. When McCutchen and Cole were traded last month, Felipe Rivero expressed confusion with both moves because he was under the impression the plan was to keep both with the Pirates in 2018.
"Some of it goes with the direction, not knowing," Harrison said Sunday. "The side of it, as I said, I understand the business side. Every year there are going to be guys coming in and guys going out. I've been here for a lot of it and you just want to know where we stand as a team, where you stand as a player. What’s expected of you, what’s expected of the team. Sometimes that gets lost in translation, the human side of this game. We all want to win. I’m not saying nobody wants to win, but when you feel it’s not the main goal of everybody, whether it’s in the clubhouse or dealing with the organization, that’s hard to be a part of, especially at this level when it’s only a fraction of our lives playing at the major league level. ... You want to be somewhere that wants to win."
Huntington, though, said it isn't always productive to address breakdowns in communication, expressing concerns that information can be leaked to the press and in turn, negatively impacting the Pirates' leverage in trade negotiations.
But he also shouldered some blame for how he's handled communicating with players in the past, voicing regrets on not giving McCutchen more notice that the Pirates were indeed shopping him around the league.
"The best thing I could have done last year — which I never do — is lie," Huntington said. "Are you talking about Andrew McCutchen? No. But that’s not the truth. We were candid in our process. We’ve been candid in our process about how we believe small- and mid-market teams continue to be successful and that our goal is to be in the postseason as consistently and frequently as possible. … We went through the normal process [this offseason], and obviously it wasn’t good enough."
Harrison also wanted Huntington to know that there had to be a full commitment to win for him to want to remain with the organization. Although he said he was happy to be back for another season in the major leagues, Harrison had a telling response when asked if he wanted to be at Pirate City.
"At end of the day, I can't control being here, being anywhere else," Harrison said. "My main goal is to make sure, wherever I am, that they understand I want to win. If that’s not the main focus, I want to go elsewhere. Like I said, I can’t control it. If their main focus is winning, let’s do it. That’s my main objective. I don’t care how we do it, but things need to be done. As Freese said the other day, it has to be urgent and not just from a couple guys, couple people in the [front office]. It has to be top to bottom."
Harrison added that it wasn't just the trades of McCutchen and Cole that motivated him to release his statement. Rather, it was an accumulation of events that led him to wonder whether or not everyone in the organization wanted to win.
By trading McCutchen and Cole, the club shed nearly $20 million in payroll, despite revenue being at an all-time high across Major League Baseball. The Pirates have yet to sign a free agent to a major league contract, relying instead on waiver claims and non-roster invitees to fill out the roster.
It was the third consecutive offseason the club neglected to add to the roster. The Pirates traded Neil Walker following the 98-win season in 2015, and they did not make a significant move last offseason, despite there being a significant hole in the rotation and Jung Ho Kang not being able to return to the United States.
Francisco Cervelli and Sean Rodriguez shared a more optimistic outlook on the state of the roster when both spoke to reporters earlier this week, but Harrison said his conversation with Huntington did not lead him to believe that the club is indeed in position to contend.
Although Harrison has arrived, his future is still very much in question. He'll make $10.25 million this season with club options for the following two seasons. A number of teams have expressed interest in acquiring him — including the Yankees — and the Pirates could opt to use either Sean Rodriguez, Adam Frazier or Max Moroff as the starting second baseman.
Harrison expects his future to be discussed during meetings with management now that he's arrived in Pirate City, and he said his message to them will be a simple one.
"Sometimes the best way to do things is right out forward, man," he said. "So much grey area in life when people are scared to be up front. But if there's something you truly believe in and that's where I was at, that's something I truly believe in: I want to win. If that's not what they want to do here, say trade me. If that's what they plan to do, you have to express that to guys. Let them know. At 30 years old, I tell my wife I'm not a mind-reader. Be up front with me. This isn't a guessing game."
MATT SUNDAY GALLERY
Pirates spring training, Bradenton, Fla., Feb. 18, 2018 - MATT SUNDAY / DKPS