Pirates are having the saddest season in MLB

The Blue Jays were three wins away from the World Series last season, and now they’re 3 games away from fourth place.

They’re dealing with a horrific amalgam of on- and off-field miseries, stories that are sad in a baseball context, and stories that remind you how meaningless baseball is.

With only a year of control left by the Pirates, teams are circling to see if (Gerrit) Cole is made available should Pittsburgh continue to struggle.

The Pirates actually control Cole through 2019, but the idea remains the same.

If the Pirates are trading their best pitcher, they shouldn’t pretend they can compete next season or the season after that, not when they would be down an ace and without the money or means to acquire a proper replacement.

Cole would ostensibly start a chain reaction that would lead the Pirates with younger, cheaper players with unknown futures.

But I’m still of the opinion that this is still probably the best shot the Pirates will have in the next five years.

They can trade Cole, Nova, Harrison, Polanco, Watson, and everyone else making seven or eight figures, and hope they can sift through the ashes and find the next Cole, Nova, Harrison, Polanco, and Watson.

It’s been a sad, sad, sad, sad season for the Pirates.

They shouldn’t be there yet, and maybe this sad, sad, sad, sad season is what will give them the sense of urgency next offseason that they should have had in the last one.