Mark Madden's Hot Take: Pirates watch as rival Reds improve by hiring New Brighton's Terry Francona

The Pittsburgh Pirates added MLB’s best pitcher and another good hurler this season. Their best offensive talent was healthy after playing just nine games in 2023 because he didn’t know how to slide. (Probably still doesn’t.)

Yet somehow the Pirates managed to finish with the same rotten record (76-86) as last season. Even now, with the campaign finished, they still manage to get humiliated regularly.

The latest installments:

• The Pirates will retain GM Ben Cherington and manager Derek Shelton despite them presiding over five losing seasons and almost zero tangible improvement. (They work cheap. End of story.)

• New Brighton native Terry Francona ended a one-year “retirement” to become manager at Cincinnati.

Francona might be MLB’s top manager in recent memory. He’s headed for the Baseball Hall of Fame.

New Brighton is 30 miles from Pittsburgh. Francona was a Pirates fan growing up.

But the Pirates made no attempt to hire him.

It would have been a wasted call. Francona’s not a mark, nor is he insane.

Francona might have been tempted by the Pirates’ pitching. But he knows owner Bob Nutting never will spend adequately.

It doesn’t matter who the manager is. Or the GM, for that matter. It’s about the money.

The knife gets driven deeper by the fact that the Pirates and Reds are roughly in the same boat. (And in the same division, the NL Central.)

The Pirates have Paul Skenes, 22. The Reds have their own phenom in shortstop Elly De La Cruz, also 22.

Pittsburgh is the nation’s No. 28 market, Cincinnati No. 37.

The Pirates’ payroll this past season was $85 million, Cincinnati’s was $100 million.

But, when winning approaches, the Reds are a much better bet to invest than the Pirates. Consider how Nutting dismantled a championship-caliber team after the 2015 season because it was too expensive.

Kansas City went from 106 losses last year to a berth in the American League Division Series this season, and it’s not done yet.

The Royals are better at developing players than the Pirates. (Most teams are.) They also increased their payroll from $96 million to $122.5 million because they rightly sensed a surge was close.

Nutting is only concerned about a surge in profits.

Francona knows the Reds have ambition. The Pirates don’t.

Francona will get the Reds in the playoffs before the Pirates make it. Likely by finishing ahead of the Pirates.