It's one thing if the Mets get outbid trusting a guy's word that they'll get a second chance. They can always go sign a free agent. It's just a different animal with the Pirates.

Oh, well.

At that point the Pirates had the highest offer, Plummer declined, so the Pirates either needed to:

1. Up their offer
2. Wait for Plummer to accept their offer
3. Wait to see if anyone else outbids them, and act accordingly

They were also promised a chance to outbid any offers that came along. With this information, option #1, upping the offer, seemed foolish at the time.

In hindsight, it would have been the right move, which is what I think you're saying, and I'd agree. I also think that this was a play by Plummer, kind of like his "Scott Boras/Tim Belcher" moment. In future negotiations, teams are going to be more willing to up their offer, even if they are the high bidder, in order to avoid this potential situation.

Because the guy didn't say yes to the $2.6 million offer. They obviously were gonna give someone a chance to top it. I would've, two weeks ago, gone to Plummer and Sano and offered the $4 million, the second-highest bonus ever for a guy like Sano, and dared them to say no. If someone beats that number and they don't come back, fine. But I feel they needed to knock Plummer's socks off and they didn't do that.

By the way, I did read that Plummer gets 5% of the bonus and Sano's "trainer" gets 25%. So Sano walks away with only around $1.7 million with out $2.6 offer right there (I know, my math is far from exact), so I just feel we needed to grease the palms more on this one. Guys like him don't come around often.

I've defended Huntington and Nutting a lot this year. I feel for them, but they didn't do enough. The bottom line is Sano didn't sign because of money, and they couldn't afford to let that be the sticking point this time.

We probably won't see eye to eye on this, but hey, at least the Pirates know how to keep us talking about them!

-They were the only team with an offer before the age investigation completed in late July
-They had the highest offer after they upped it to $2.6 M
-Not everyone was sold on Sano. The O's refused to go beyond $2.5 M, even when given the chance to match the Twins offer.
-The Pirates were promised a chance to match any higher offers.

If I'm sitting with the highest offer, with no other bidders going against me, and a promise that I can match anyone who out-bids me, then why would I be more aggressive? That's the way I look at the situation the Pirates were in.

Unfortunately, Plummer didn't fulfill his promise of allowing the Pirates to match the better offer. In hindsight, they should have been more aggressive, but that's an unfair stance, because back in August I don't think anyone could have predicted Plummer's actions today.

The Pirates needed this kid, for their farm system, their credibility, and to show the fan base they mean business. They can't compete on the Major League open market, so they are going to have to swing for the fences on the international markets and in the draft. It's their only chance. Besides, Sano accepted an offer $1 million below the record for an international under-18 signing. We should've gone to Plummer two weeks ago and offered $4 million. We barely offered the kid more than what Capps is making. So what if Neal was afraid he was bidding against himself and if they would've spent a needless extra million–they would've got the kid and helped shave their nickel and dime label a bit more.

I am very upset by this news, if you can't tell.