For Bob Nutting, the home opener at PNC Park is a day he describes as “incredibly special” for the Pittsburgh Pirates. It’s one where the Pirates chairman celebrates the return of baseball to the city, personally greeting players and coaches on the field before the game.
As Nutting walked off the field Friday afternoon before the Pirates played the New York Yankees, a plane flew overhead with a banner trailing that read, “SELL THE TEAM BOB.”
After six consecutive losing seasons — and only seven winning records over the past three decades — frustrated fans posted that message on billboards around the city this winter and voiced it during a Q&A session with team management at a Pirates fan festival.
Nutting finally reacted with a measured response.
“I think there are really two answers to that,” Nutting told TribLive. “The first really sincere and honest answer is, I really respect the fans’ passion. I really appreciate that they care enough to fly a banner and put up a billboard. I really appreciate that they care and love the team so much. I just hope they know that I do, too.”
The Pirates talk about wanting to win now, yet they spent less than $20 million in free agency to supplement a roster that features a generational superstar in 22-year-old right-handed pitcher Paul Skenes. The Pirates won the inaugural draft lottery to select Skenes No. 1 overall in the 2023 MLB Draft, and he made a meteoric rise to the majors, starting for the National League in the All-Star Game, earning NL Rookie of the Year honors and finishing third in NL Cy Young voting.
“I love the character that he brings, the leadership that he brings,” Nutting said of Skenes, attributing it to his parents and two years at the U.S. Air Force Academy. “Having someone with the unbelievable mix of physical talent, mental focus, leadership characteristics, we’re pleased to have Paul here as long as we possibly can.”
After the Pirates posted back-to-back 100-loss seasons in 2021-22 and successive 76-win seasons in 2023-24, Skenes’ immediate impact accelerated both the window and expectations for the Pirates to win.
Skenes told TribLive last month that he won’t be satisfied with simply reaching the postseason, as the Pirates did by clinching three consecutive wild-card berths from 2013-15. They ended two decades of losing seasons by winning 94 games in 2013, then beating the Cincinnati Reds in dramatic fashion in the wild-card game at PNC Park.
“I’m tired of hearing about the freaking wild-card game, I’ll say that,” Skenes said. “That is such a low bar to set. I get it. People are jumping off the bridge and into the river and all that for a wild-card game. That’s the last time we’ve had a taste of it. I’m tired of hearing about it. I want people to be jumping off all the bridges, not just the Clemente Bridge.”
The Pirates opened the season by losing five of their first seven games. That included three losses in their first four by one run in walk-off fashion against the Miami Marlins, a team that lost 100 games last year. But Skenes was the catalyst in snapping a four-game losing streak, allowing one unearned run while recording six strikeouts in seven innings in a 4-2 win Wednesday at the Tampa Bay Rays.
That had Pirates manager Derek Shelton looking forward to the home opener, which featured 2023 All-Star Mitch Keller pitching on his 29th birthday and fan favorite Andrew McCutchen, a five-time All-Star and 2013 NL MVP, starting in right field at age 38. Shelton was happy to be back at PNC Park after two months in Florida.
“The fans, the way they get into it, I think that’s the most important thing,” Shelton said. “Any time you get to come home and have a home opener, it’s special. There’s a different energy to ballparks that are downtown. I think we all know this is the best ballpark in baseball. When you get a home opener, the energy downtown is something that’s palpable, man. It lights up everything.”
Nutting is counting on that energy translating to winning. He believes the Pirates are pointed in the right direction after a long rebuild and wants fans to understand that he’s committed to a process that has tested their patience.
“I really am out here working every day to try to build a team,” Nutting said. “I’ve done it for 20 years. We did it successfully for a few years. We didn’t win enough. We need to win more. That’s what we’ve been focused on since the first day I got here and continue to work on throughout the offseason, so I think that’s critical.”
Featured Local Businesses
Though the Pirates retained Shelton and general manager Ben Cherington, they made major changes to their front office by hiring new directors for their farm system, research and development and scouting departments. Despite the protests from fans, Nutting reiterated his stance that he isn’t interested in selling the team.
“Part of my role is and needs to be filtering out anything that distracts us from laser-focusing on the most important things that will make change in the organization,” Nutting said. “That’s change throughout the last 20 years, whether that’s building the Dominican academy, investing in Bradenton, rebuilding the draft. We did a lot of things to help get us to ’13-14-15. You see a lot of that same going on now in different areas, building out the analytics team, making sure the players are getting support. We changed every corner of the organization through this offseason to make sure we’re providing players the support they need.
“When I see the (plane) banner, I’m reminded that we need to be focused on what will deliver the results they expect. I don’t think it’s selling the team. I think it’s executing, executing, executing what we’re focused on.”