Pirates owner Bob Nutting spoke to reporters, including the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review’s Rob Biertempfel, Monday morning. Here’s some of what Nutting had to say.
- Nutting says he is not overly concerned at this point about potential contract extensions for GM Neal Huntington or manager Clint Hurdle, although he adds that he considers them “tremendous talents” and says he’s “very comfortable” with them. Both are signed through 2017 with team options for 2018.
- Pirates brass has previously offered praise for star outfielder Andrew McCutchen and expressed hope to keep him beyond his current contract (which runs through 2017 with a team option for 2018). Those statements of hope have been vague, however, and the Pirates’ trade talks involving McCutchen this past winter seem to indicate they aren’t planning on extending him — a decision that might be defensible given the Pirates’ apparently limited means and McCutchen’s advancing age and underwhelming 2016 season. Nutting’s comments about McCutchen today seem consistent with the Pirates’ recent approach. “I appreciate him. I could spend the rest of the morning saying nice things and wonderful anecdotes about Andrew,” Nutting says. “If there were a way to keep him, clearly it would be wonderful to see him in a Pirates uniform.” Via Stephen J. Nesbitt of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, however, Nutting added, “If we have the appropriate goal set of making the team better, doing what’s right for Pittsburgh, doing what’s right for the Pirates, then it allows you to make some tough decisions that you know are the right thing to do,” apparently in reference to McCutchen.
- Nutting says he thought the Pirates’ disappointing 78-win performance in 2016 was due to underperformance rather than to the Bucs’ perennially modest payroll. “We ended up with the season we did (in 2016) because the team and organization underperformed the level of talent that we had,” he says. “I really think it’s far more execution than what we put together.”
I had to read this headline twice cuz the first time I thought they meant something completely different…
Commas, they’re important.
I wonder if any Pirates fans will take this opportunity to tell us all how evil Nutting is?
Not all pirates fans hate ownership. It’s the people who listen to the “experts” on the radio who hate ownership.
Exactly. I understand what they are doing. I don’t always agree with it or love it, but they do have a plan and generally stick to it. The anti-Nutting crowd is just more vocal than those who are pleased with the process made from the 20 years of sub .500 futility.
Yeah, the Pirates fans and local experts all harken back to the good ol days when the Pirates traded all of their prospects “going all in!!!” for veteran players. They forget that that strategy begat the 20 years of no winning seasons when guys like Joggin George Hendricks and Derek “Operation Shutdown” Bell flamed out and no prospects to fill their shoes. Everyone wants to be like the Cardinals here in the Burgh. They are actually trying to do that yet the fans don’t understand how the Cards have done it. They usually do not spend huge bucks on free agents. They trade veterans when they start declining yet still have value to get return. The replace the vets with farm hands that are ready to go. Bucs are finally getting into that program as they have built the system up and now are in position to start trading off aging guys for more pieces to keep it going. Some just don’t get it.
Well said, the cardinals draft well and make smart trades which is why they have been so successful. That’s how the Cubs built most of their team as well, adding a few free agents, but they drafted Bryant and Baez and made three EXCELLENT trades for Rizzo, Arrieta and Hendricks. The Pirates have made some decent and bad trades, I’m hoping the Melancon trade turns into a steal and Felipe Rivero becomes an excellent relief pitcher here. Would sure be nice if the Bucs were able to get a steal in a deal somewhere down the road.
A lot of those people don’t even watch the Pirates. They always comment on the team to bash them at every turn, but if you asked them to name 5 players other than McCutchen, they likely wouldn’t be able to tell you. Nutting isn’t very popular, but some of that is from people who are completely clueless about baseball.
Yinzers listen to the local talking heads who do nothing but bash the Bucs. and blame Nutting. for everything. Funny how the crying about the Pirates not signing Neil Walker long term quieted down right after Neil’s back went out again.
Thank you for all the cliched answers Bob. Just do Pittsburgh a favor and shut your mouth. No one wants to hear your BS
Exactly.
Right bob underperforming? Actually the back end of rotation performed like expected. You didn’t spend money to address rotation. The same is in store for team again since you didn’t spend money on pitching again.
So what was the $26M they spent to sign Nova this offseason? Second most money handed out to a starting pitcher this offseason.
Who takes the mound after cole, nova, and taillion? Everybody else unproven! To contend you need four and then the lottery ticket that is glasnow!
Who should they have gotten?
Who were the four for Kansas City in 2015?
Kuhl or Hutchison. And Glasnow is the No. 9 prospect in the game…let me guess you don’t think he’s any good?
Please tell me who else was out there in free agency at SP would you have signed? ……
Either Glasnow or Kingham or both could grab rotation spots by midseadon the way Taillon did.
Worse comes to worse, if they go to camp and all the young kids look terrible, they could get one of the Dodgers 43 starters. Kazmir or McCarthy are players they’ve made offers on in the past.
Derek Holland or Andrew Cashner would have been reasonable gambles even Jeremy Hellickson. If they were really serious they would ante up the prospects to get Quintana. At some point it needs to be about the present and not the future. But you guys can say we yinzers are bitter but ownership yesterday blamed the players for last year! Honestly even if true who does that? They provided only two legit starters last year then relied on volgelsong and Locke! Give me a break.
Glasnow could not throw a strike last year at MLB level. He could be good, but it might not be till next year. Can’t rely on him now to take a turn every fifth day at MLB level. They should try to win now, even though best chance was two years ago. Have one rotation spot for kids to see if you can get lightning in bottle with glasnow or kuhl. They need another legit arm. All I will say is they traded two prospects to get Toronto to take liriano, they never do that to try to win!
Cole was ugly because of nagging injuries, Niese was bad early,came around pitched decent until after the Mets game and he hurt his knee and stunk because of it. Liriano plain stunk Harrison tailed off, Cutch tailed off, Polanco tailed off. Marte had injury problems, Kung was average coming off his injury. With all of those problems, 1 or two more pitchers would not have helped. Taillon did as planned and did well.
as far as this year, spending a bunch of money on what was available will not help. I would like to see Quintana be acquired but not at a cost of Meadows, Bell and either Keller or Glasnow. You have to be realistic on what was available this off season for pitching.
Root for bob to make money and for some mythical future time when everything comes together. Like it was said yesterday by the director of baseball operations if we would have traded glasnow several years ago we wouldn’t be able to enjoy him now. But hey we made the wild card three times so we should be satisfied
I think Cole, Taillon, Nova, Kuhl, and Glasnow is the best rotation they’ve had in a long time. If they stay healthy they’ll be in the Wildcard spot.
Guessing Glasnow will be given a month or so to have extra time fine tuning the new change up. Hutchison or Brault will be #5 unless both have horrible springs and will hold the fort until Glasnow gets real comfortable with the new pitch. I hear he is throwing his 2 seamer again so he will have 4 pitches soon.
It was really interesting reading a thread of Angels fans talking about how Arte Moreno is a terrible owner because he just keeps spending money on payroll instead of scouting, analytics, player development, etc.
And I realized…
All of the Pirates fans mad that Nutting won’t take money out of his own bank account to sign Cutch for life and spend money on free agents can root for the Angels. You can get a nice Pujols or Josh Hamilton jersey. Sure, he busted out totally, but the team spent the money AKA was trying to win, right?
And all of the Angels fans who care about everything but MLB payroll…Nutting has the team for you. Shifting, metrics and all the farm system you could want.
Then everyone can be happy.
I’m sorry, but this idea is entirely practical and makes too much sense. There’s no place for that here. 😉
Exactly. You have the normal fans who want to spend just a little bit more. Then you have the ones who want the Pirates to spend money, just to spend money. For example, someone said last year the Dbacks’ awful offseason that could cripple them for years was still better than the Pirates because “At least they tried”.
I think every team has stupid fans. Being a cubs fan and seeing the people who complained that the cubs didn’t sign pujols, fielder, bj upton, etc etc over the years of their rebuilding because they had the money to do so was very annoying, so I totally get that. It becomes even more annoying when you see the same people act like they supported and understood the process the whole time.
I think that a lot of it is that fans in a general don’t have a great understanding of what teams are trying to do. Obviously there are fans of each team who do understand it at, but the majority don’t understand the finer points of what a team is doing. You can’t just throw money at the problem and fix it, especially if you don’t have a massive payroll. There is also the problem that a lot of fans tend to over rate their team. they see only the good possible outcomes and thus think even more incorrectly that tossing some money at x player can really put the team over the edge because y will bounce back and all the young guys will be good etc etc, which just rarely happens all at the same time.
im not a pirates fan but if they would have added a piece or two they would have been a force a couple years ago. They didnt have to spend another 50 million. Instead they did nothing like always. They missed their window im afraid.
The Pirates’ clutch to team control and prospects keeps their window opened longer if anything. It’just not as wide open at the moment as it was 2 years ago (assuming Cutch and Cole don’t return to form.)
Exactly right! Now the cubs have slammed that window closed
not really. cubs offensive core is young. however, lester, lackey, and Arrieta are all in their 30s. they could have a serious issue in the rotation as soon as next year.
pirates are smart to stay fluid.
While I understand the sentiment that some have about keeping McCutchen, the problem is that in a very short period of time McCutchen could very well be the 4th best outfielder on the team.
And that’s no so much about the decline of McCutchen as it speaks to the potential talent levels of Marte, Polanco, and Meadows.