As we always say, baseball gives us plenty of reasons to smile, and sometimes, to cry. But amid the game’s highs and lows, fan wars are a constant feature. The latest one? A poor take from the Pittsburgh Pirates’ president has fans and insiders fuming.

In this sport, you can’t just lean on one guy to carry the whole load. And right now, MLB insider Jeff Passan is calling out the Pirates’ front office for doing exactly that with Paul Skenes—a generational talent who deserves better support around him. According to Passan, the team’s failure to build a solid roster is not just bad management—it may also be a big reason why attendance is lagging.

But that’s not all. Even taking an indirect dig at former Marlins President David Samson, who considered the attendance statistics “absolutely meaningless”. While Samson called Passan out for ‘insulting’ Skenes and the Pirates, fans think otherwise. So what did he say?

Jeff Passan’s sharp criticism basically centers around the lack of aggressive spending by the team and failing to develop a competitive roster to give enough support to Skenes. In a recent discussion with Chris Rose, he said, “The Pirates this offseason have spent $19.95 million on free agent signings. When they have a generational pitcher — a guy who I think, if he stays healthy, is going to be a Hall of Famer in Paul Skenes — and coming into the year, they have Jones and Chandler, and on and on… like they’ve got arms.”

His statement does justify the fact that the Pittsburgh Pirates haven’t done enough to develop a healthy team that could have provided the desired support that Skenes expects. He even stressed the Pirates’ revenue, which is $326 million, compared to the Arizona Diamondbacks’ $188 million payroll, the Kansas City Royals’ $134 million, and the Minnesota Twins’ $147 million. David, though, considers it a wrong approach that is insulting to the listener.

Yet, fans didn’t like that line of criticism one bit.

Fans disagree with Ex-Marlins president amid his unconventional take on MLB insider

Once the former Marlins president posted the video of Jeff Passan on X and called it simply wrong and insulting to the listener, fans flooded social media with disagreement. One X user wrote, “Then they should put out all their financial information to prove otherwise.” To be fair, no team’s going to do that, exposing their financial statements and all to show proof of not spending.

Another one took a sarcastic dig, saying, “Ok, then what’s the argument to not spend money?” This comment was purely targeted at David Samson, questioning whether the argument is about not spending enough money on the team or not. And yes, the Pirates have been less aggressive in terms of spending, and that’s a reason behind not being able to develop a competitive roster surrounding Paul Skenes.

An X user came up with a sensitive comment, highlighting that it all depends on the timing of the open window and the most suitable time to leverage it. “Your argument for low-revenue teams seems to be you need to know when your competitive window is open & leverage that as much as possible while also recognizing when it’s over & leveraging the start of the next window. I think you both agree the Pirates could do better,” the user said, giving a clear indication of how the teams need to leverage the start of the next window.

Things got more serious when another fan added, “Forbes list aside, is he wrong? You do yourself a disservice categorizing your marlins with teams like the pirates that don’t even attempt to put a competitive team on the field. You all weren’t in the same ballpark of complacency as teams like this.” He clearly pointed fingers at the Miami Marlins, talking about how they never even developed a competitive team, which the Pirates at least tried to put on the field.

The final comment came from an angry fan, who wrote, “Then open up your books and let the public see so we can verify that teams are not just sucking the team’s profitability into their individual net worth.” This comment is clearly an eye-opener for many. It stressed displaying the expenses and profit, which could serve as proof to justify that the management and front office aren’t filling their own pockets from the profit earned.

Do you agree with Jeff Passan? Let us know in the comments.