There are multiple avenues available for organizations to acquire talent. One of those avenues is through free agency, which has not often been the Pittsburgh Pirates path of choice.
In terms of volume, the 2021-2022 off-season was actually one of the most active for the Pirates when they signed seven players to major league contracts for a combined $16.225M guaranteed. That amount is almost equal to the total amount spent over the prior four off-seasons combined in guaranteed major league contracts that comes to $16.55M.
In the 2016-2017 off-season, the Pirates only signed two free agents — Ivan Nova and Daniel Hudson — for a combined $37M guaranteed that broke down to roughly $14.