This is not a big deal

Duke, Gonzalez, Duffy, and Castillo have all decided not to sign their 1-3 contracts from the team and despite what many people are saying, THIS IS NOT A BIG DEAL. I saw Zach Duke on Pittsburgh Sports Tonight last night and his almost exact words were, "This isn't a big deal, it's just the business side of baseball. They have an option to pay me this amount and it makes sense that they'd take it. I think I'm worth more, so I'm not signing the contract, but this isn't a big deal at all."

For refrence, let's look at the second year salaries of the 2002-2004 ROTYs from each league (minus Bay since we already know what happened) as listed on Baseball Reference:

2002 NL ROTY- Jason Jennings
2003 Salary- $325,000

2002 AL ROTY- Eric Hinske
2003 Salary- $600,000

2003 NL ROTY- Dontrelle Willis
2004 Salary- $353,500

2003 AL ROTY- Angel Berroa
2004 Salary- $372,500

2004 AL ROTY- Bobby Crosby
2005 Salary- $350,000

Only one, Hinske, recieved a substantial raise, though even that was nothing to write home about. Duke wasn't even a Rookie of the Year, he only played half a season last year. Duffy played less than that in his first season, Castillo hasn't played a full season without getting hurt yet, and Gonzalez has never pitched more than 50 innings in a season. The Pirates do a lot wrong, but they're doing not in the wrong here. These four players know that, this is nothing but a symbolic gesture. It won't affect their play or their already slim chances of staying here past their arbitration years in any way.