Pirates baseball: Three rivers of fan angst and animosity
The rotunda beyond the left field wall at Pittsburgh's PNC Park is something of a giant spiral staircase.
Its main function is to allow spectators to move between decks, but fans often stand along the railings of its four winding layers for views of the playing field.
The change in elevation is an easy slope, and it's the slowest way to vertically navigate the ballpark. So it was a bit curious when Pittsburgh Pirates owner Bob Nutting took this route during the home opener April 4.
If Nutting had any doubts about how unpopular he had become in the city, if he'd somehow avoided all the social media vitriol and the talk radio chatter, wading into fans in the rotunda brought it all home.
One of the first fans to notice Nutting exclaimed, "Sell the team, Bob!"
Others standing nearby took notice and an impromptu "Sell the team!" chant began, accompanied by boos and jeers. Nutting's pace increased. One fan with his smartphone camera recording asked Nutting if he could "get a word."
Nutting turned to look at the fan, without stopping. The fan asked, "How is Opening Day for ya?"
Nutting nodded, and the one security official with him impeded the fan’s path. A full ambush was averted.
The state of the Pirates has become so loathsome for fans that videos, social media posts, and local news stories are reaching escape velocity and becoming a national talking point. This should be an exciting time for the fan base with Paul Skenes in the rotation, and arguably the game's next top pitching prospect, Bubba Chandler, close to joining him.
But the Pirates are anything but a feel-good story.
As a former beat writer who covered the team from 2013-16, I am familiar with long-standing animosity between fans and Nutting. I can remember the jokes: "Pittsburgh: City of champions, and the Pirates." I can recall the #NuttingsWallet tags on so many Twitter posts.
But sentiment seems to have become more hostile this season.
I texted my friend and longtime Pirates fan Joe Manetta to ask if the state of affairs was as dire as it seemed from a distance. Even Skenes' home starts have been sparsely attended.
"As a lifelong Pirates fan, a former employee, and a former season-ticket holder, I don't believe the morale around the team has ever been worse," Manetta wrote back.
Much of the public angst is tied to the club’s lack of investment, a long-running issue.
The Pirates opened the season ranked 26th in the majors in payroll, and they have ranked 26th or lower in Opening Day payroll 17 times in the 19 years of Nutting's ownership.
But the lack of investment this past offseason was particularly irksome. The Pirates are sitting on a winning lottery ticket with Skenes, the No. 1 pick in the 2023 draft, under club control through 2029. There was a feeling the limited window should prompt some win-now urgency.
Instead, the Pirates signed no free agent to a multi-year deal in the offseason.
Their biggest free-agent expenditures were on 37-year-old outfielder Tommy Pham (a one-year, $4-million deal), retaining 38-year-old Andrew McCutchen (one year, $5 million), and 33-year-old pitcher Andrew Heaney (one year, $5.25 million). The team also traded for first baseman Spencer Horwitz, 27, a useful player but likely not a difference-maker.
The largest free agent contract in club history remains the three-year, $39-million deal Francisco Liriano signed in December 2015.
Yet, when speaking with Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reporter Noah Hiles for a Q&A earlier in April, Nutting said he's been a fine steward of the franchise.
"I think that I've done everything that I can to provide the tools and resources to the team," Nutting said. "There is a point where it becomes execution."
To many folks in western Pennsylvania, that is complete delusion.
The Pirates' Opening Day payroll was $13 million more in 2016 - a club-record $99.95 million - than it was entering this season ($86.46 million). This despite MLB revenues doubling to $12 billion since 2007.
Pittsburgh entered play Monday batting .184 as a team – the fifth-worst mark through 16 games to start a season since 1901. The Pirates were also slugging .290 and in possession of a 61 wRC+. Each measure ranked last in the majors.
Even adjusting for revenue discrepancies, Nutting is one of the game's tightest owners based on estimated revenue spent on payroll.
Beyond the on-field product, some fan-friendly touches had been altered without notice. Wall signage honoring Pirates legend, Hall of Famer, and humanitarian Roberto Clemente in the right-field corner was removed and replaced by an ad for a hard lemonade.
After public backlash, including from Clemente's son, the ad was taken down and the tribute restored. In an April 6 statement, club president Travis Williams called it an honest mistake.
On April 9, in response to emails from fans asking where their "Bucco Bricks" had gone, a local television station investigated.
Fans paid the team years ago to have personalized Bucco Bricks used for a portion of the sidewalk outside PNC Park. Recently, some fans had noticed they were removed without any message from the club.
It turns out the personalized mementos, which included tributes to deceased loved ones, were dumped at a local recycling facility.
KDKA captured images showing the bricks in their present state: a heap of rubble ready to be pulverized. Other teams in recent years, such as the Cleveland Guardians, offered fans an opportunity to pick up similarly personalized bricks that had been removed for renovations.
Tribune-Review sportswriter Joe Rutter wrote about how his late father had surprised him with a brick, a larger $150 one, that was inscribed with the message: "Joe Rutter Pirates Sports Writer — Joe's Dad, Tom Rutter."
"Had the Pirates informed fans with an announcement of the bricks' removal, perhaps those who purchased them could have retrieved their brick before they were sent to the dump," Rutter wrote. "Old and decaying as they were, the bricks provided an emotional connection, and the Pirates could have negated the backlash by being proactive for once and offering them back to customers as a keepsake.
"Instead, it marks another round of bad publicity for a franchise that is used to disappointing fans with its play on the field. Amazingly, they have found creative ways this year to upset their fan base with their actions off it."
Nutting wrote an apology letter to Rutter, but the PR damage was done. The Pirates issued a response, noting they were planning a new fan tribute. But the boos did not stop raining down. (On Wednesday, the team announced a plan to provide fans who participated in the original program a replica brick and to create a new permanent display.)
On April 9, when the Pirates played host to the Cardinals in an afternoon game, "sell the team" chants again broke out in the seventh and eighth innings.
That evening at Pat McAfee’s "Big Night Aht" event across the Allegheny River, more "sell the team" chants thundered down from some 12,000 strong at PPG Arena when McAfee introduced Skenes.
"Oh shit. No, no!" McAfee exclaimed as the chants continued.
Skenes stood in awkward silence with microphone in hand, wearing a thin smile, while McAfee tried to change the subject. On stage with Skenes and McAfee were longtime Pittsburgh sports fixtures Sidney Crosby and Ben Roethlisberger.
Crosby and Roethlisberger signed multiple contract extensions with the Penguins and Steelers, respectively, teams in leagues that have salary caps and floors. Nothing is in place in MLB to compel Nutting, or any owner, to spend.
There is almost zero chance Skenes will be in Pittsburgh beyond 2029. Gerrit Cole, another No. 1 overall pick, was traded after just four-and-a-half seasons with the Pirates.
"At least during the COVID years, we were in a 'rebuild' if you will call it that. We haven't rebuilt anything since 2015," Manetta said of the growing frustration. "We have the best young arm in baseball, and they have done nothing to add talent around him. I've attended the one and only game that I will attend this season, and I don't think that there was a more depressing season visit to PNC Park in the 24 seasons it's been open. It was a complete ghost town."
The paid attendance figure for Skenes' start Monday was 10,402, but perhaps half that number was in the park.
More goes into being a successful MLB franchise than payroll, of course, but it's difficult to argue Nutting has been a successful steward by any measure – from PR to personnel.
Recent drafts under general manager Ben Cherington appear promising with prospects such as Chandler, Konnor Griffin, and Termarr Johnson added to the farm system, but the front-office regime, in its sixth season, has yet to produce an above-average position player. The farm system ranks 16th at Baseball America and 19th at FanGraphs.
Since Nutting took controlling interest in the club in January 2007, the Pirates rank 28th in wins (1,289), have had only four winning seasons and three postseason appearances (2013-15 under former GM Neal Huntington), and have not won a playoff round aside from the 2013 NL wild-card game.
Similar teams that live with budget constraints such as the Tampa Bay Rays (1,520 wins) and Cleveland Guardians (1,480) rank fourth and seventh in the majors in wins since 2007.
Pittsburgh is a great sports town. PNC Park is arguably the best ballpark in baseball. Yet it's often far from capacity.
What can force change?
MLB rarely pressures owners to sell, although it happened in 2011 when owner Frank McCourt was forced to sell the Los Angeles Dodgers after the team filed for bankruptcy. Owners tend to stay out of one another's affairs, and the commissioner works on their behalf.
Pirates fans have limited bargaining power aside from staying home.
Next year will be Nutting's 20th year as the principal owner of the club. Pittsburgh, unlike the Athletics and Rays, does not need a new ballpark. It just needs someone to invest and someone to execute for a passionate fan base that has reached the end of its rope.
Perhaps if they shout loudly enough, for long enough, someone will listen.
Travis Sawchik is theScore's senior baseball writer.