As someone who is pro salary cap in the MLB, this postseason has kind of opened my eyes a bit. I'm not sure the Pirates would be contenders even if a salary were to be implemented. The reason why the Rays, Guardians, and Brewers are always good even though they are small market is because they have competent ownership and elite front offices.

The Rays excel at trading players at their peak for elite, young players. This allows them to have a continuous pipeline of talent. The Guardians maximize homegrown talent. They are elite and drafting and developing. The Brewers have a incredibly large and development departments, they are elite in scouting. All three of these small market teams are consistently good even though they are small market because each team excels and is on the cutting edge of something. What are the Pirates good at? What are the Pirates on the cutting edge of?

The Brewers, Rays, and Guardians will be good regardless if there's a salary cap implemented or not. If there is one implemented, and if a salary cap is implemented these teams will only be more successful. The big market teams will continue to spend. It just feels like until the Pirates have competent ownership and and elite front office, then they will always struggle.

No matter what happens, the Pirates have won the series against the world champions
We won the series against Tampa Bay 2-1, Cleveland 2-1, and Milwaukee 7-6!

Edit: Typo