Pittsburgh pirates were winners, even if they lost this reputation a long time ago.
Since they joined the National League in 1887 in the 2006 season, the pirates had the sixth best percentage of victories among the franchises which were still active, according to the baseball reference. Only the Yankees, the Giants, the Dodgers, the Red Sox and the Guardians were better.
What happened after the 2006 season? Bob Nutting took control of the team. Since 2007, only the Miami marlins have had a percentage of victory worse throughout the major baseball league than the pirates.
The pirates experienced a competitive window from 2013 to 2015, when Andrew McCutchen, Starling Marte and Gerrit Cole led them to three places in the playoffs. So no one can say that it is impossible for a team belonging to Nutting to win. But the competitive window has been on board since.
Things have really plunged over the past decade. Three teams rank below Pittsburgh in percentage of victories, but only because the Marlins, the Royals of Kansas City and the White Sox of Chicago have devoted reservoir jobs. No one can reasonably defend the functioning of the Marlins and the White Sox, and the Royals have already returned to the playoffs since they are flowing at the bottom.
Tanking helped the pirates to get a generational talent to direct their rotation in the right-hander Paul Skenes, who played as planned after being chosen first in the general classification in 2023. The hackers still have a record of 15-32 entering the game on Monday, a rhythm of 53 victories. There is nothing like a gang with a single man in MLB, even if he has an MPM of 2.12 with 232 stick withdrawals in 195 2/3 sleeves.
They also recently dismissed the manager Derek Shelton, and although the interim skipper Don Kelly seems that he could be a good prospect for work, how many good players must direct? Ben Cherington has been managing director since the end of 2019, and since 2020, the pirates have gone 309-447. Only the rocks were worse in this period.
What does the immediate future look like? Pittsburgh has good individual prospects like right -hander Bubba Chandler and the Center / Central Center Konnor Griffin, who is only 19 years old in class A., but they did not do the kind of hay either in recent drafts than a team like the pirates – who does not spend for free agents and has not been effective in the development of players – must win. Their agricultural system ranks in the middle.
The pirates use the coverage of being a small market team in order to divert the responsibility of losing. They try to temper expectations, save patience and offer time with fans and point their finger on the owners of MLB and the players’ union. The finger is quite twisted. Even the money sharing money that hackers already receive other MLB teams are not invested in the new pay. They ranked 27th in 2025 by payroll and ranked 27th in the past 15 years, according to information kept in Spotrac.
Perhaps the most overwhelming result not to use the money on new players came from the competitive window opened in 2013-2015, when the BUCs reached the playoffs but failed once they arrived. Could they have won a world series with more investment in property? Well, they did not arrive without there. The BUCs used the money on the players in a way – improving the weight training room in spring training.
Nutting has a net value of $ 1.1 million.
Milwaukee’s brewers come from an even smaller market than Pittsburgh, but since Nutting has taken over the pirates, they have made the eliminatory series eight times and finished first in the central NL, including three times since 2021. For the way the richest owners of the MLB must work with the less wealthy owners, in competition with the way.
Pirates’ problems started before the nuant family bought a share of the team for the first time in 1996. BUCS was in general since Barry Bonds left for the Free Agency in 1993. They have not won world series since 1979, which was still the first days of the free agency.
Small market teams complain of a lack of equity in the economic system of the MLB and how they need help to compete. ALL RIGHT. But the pirates do not even try to win and have not been trying for years.
The BUCs stop with their owner.
