Sharky’s Café was still stuffed with Pittsburgh Steelers fans long after the team’s Friday night practice had ended at Latrobe Memorial Stadium. There were T.J. Watt, Cam Heyward and Pat Freiermuth jerseys as far as the eye could see.

By 11:45 p.m., though, the “how do yinz think Will Hahherrrd looked tonight” conversations had long since stopped. Instead, those same fans were transfixed watching the Pirates turn a 9-0 lead into a 17-16 loss in Denver to the MLB-worst Colorado Rockies.

When Brenton Doyle hit a walk-off homer to end it, the bar erupted with laughter, cheering and mock applause.

THE @ROCKIES COMPLETE THE COMEBACK! #WALKOFF pic.twitter.com/TYGyd0cTno

— MLB (@MLB) August 2, 2025

Full disclosure, I may have participated in (or maybe even started) a derisive “Let’s go Bucs!” chant to punctuate the moment.

Yup. That’s where this franchise is. When I was growing up, a loss like that would’ve resulted in f-bombs, rage and beer bottles being thrown at the screens.

Now, Pirates fans are well beyond disappointment, sadness, apathy and scorn over the organization’s repeated failure. They are onto a sardonic, macabre fascination with how low it can go.

After the Pirates split the remaining two games of the series, they currently sit at 48-64, with a .429 winning percentage. That’s a regression from the 76-win campaigns of 2023-24 (a .469 win percentage), but still ahead of the first three years of the Ben Cherington-Derek Shelton era when the club went 142-242 (a .370 win percentage).

What made the debacle Friday night at Coors Field even more head-shaking was that it occurred just about 30 hours after the trade deadline passed, and Pirates fans weren’t over the moves that Cherington had made.

The final collection of those decisions could be described as anywhere between haphazard and intentionally destructive.

All this is coming on the heels of the Pirates playing some of their best baseball of the season when they won eight of nine against the Tigers, Diamondbacks and Giants.

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Unfortunately, as we’ve discussed recently, just give the Pirates a few games. They’ll always remind you who they really are.

Then, on Sunday, Cherington poured kerosene on the fire by claiming the Pirates never make moves for strictly financial reasons.

“If we make a trade involving a player on a contract, as we did in the case with Ke’Bryan (Hayes), we would never make a trade in order to save money,” Cherington said on 93.7 The Fan. “That’s never part of the calculus.” 

Yup. Cherington — being of sound mind and body, presumably with knowledge that human beings with functioning ears could hear him — said that out loud.

On the record. During a live radio broadcast.

And, I assume, he expected us to believe him.

“That’s really the calculus when we think about a trade like that. What are we getting back? What are the alternatives in the organization to step in and contribute in this spot that we’re opening up? And what might we do with that payroll space going forward,” Cherington continued. “If adding those three things up, if we think adding those three things up gives us a better chance to win, that’s why you’d make a trade like that.”

Even in the specific case of that Hayes trade, which I actually think most Pirates fans understood in concept, the Pirates got back an A-ball prospect in Sammy Stafura, cash considerations and veteran reliever Taylor Rodgers, who was immediately flipped to the Chicago Cubs.

How are we possibly supposed to believe that trade wasn’t financially motivated? Given Hayes’s lack of offensive production and the $32.25 million remaining on his contract, I don’t even have a problem with that logic. But don’t lie to me about it.

Same thing with David Bednar getting moved to the Yankees for three minor league prospects, or when the likes of Jameson Taillon, Josh Bell and Adam Frazier (the first time) were traded before they got expensive.

I mean, Rowdy Tellez was let go four at-bats shy of a $200,000 bonus last year. We are to believe finances don’t play a role in player moves?

C’mon, Ben. I’m more than happy to lie to myself and laugh when I should be crying over on-field results. But you lying to us over the financial motivation of the team when we know better is another matter entirely.

Listen: Tim Benz and Kevin Gorman talk about the Pirates’ trade deadline moves in this week’s baseball podcast

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