Frustrated Pirates fans: 'Sell the team'

Field Level Media|published: Sun 19th January, 12:52 2025

MLB: Seattle Mariners at Pittsburgh Pirates

Aug 16, 2024; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Fans look on as Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher Paul Skenes (30) warms up in the bullpen before pitching against the Seattle Mariners at PNC Park. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images

The Pittsburgh Pirates aren't for sale, despite the pleas of frustrated fans who want owner Bob Nutting to sell the franchise.

At an offseason fan event on Saturday, fans chanted "sell the team" during a question-and-answer session, leaving CEO Travis Williams to tell the audience that Nutting doesn't intend to sell.

"Bob is not going to sell the team," Williams said. "He cares about Pittsburgh, he cares about winning, he cares about us putting a winning product on the field, and we're working towards that every day."

Still, that's hard for fans to recognize. The Pirates have 17 playoff appearances in their 143 years of existence. They've won the World Series five times, most recently in 1979.

Pittsburgh hasn't made the playoffs since 2015, when they lost the wild-card game for the second consecutive year. Their playoff drought is second longest in the majors, trailing only the Los Angeles Angels, who haven't reached the postseason since 2014.

The Pirates enter the 2025 season coming off back-to-back 76-86 seasons and have had only four winning seasons since 2007, when Nutting became principal owner.

They were still in the playoff hunt into August last season. Entering play on Aug. 1, Pittsburgh was 55-53 and 2.5 games out of the final wild-card spot. After finishing the season 21-33, the Pirates wound up 13 games out of the wild card, with manager Derek Shelton and general manager Ben Cherington called out by fans on Saturday, too.

"We can just look at last year," Williams said. "It was a big positive going through the middle of the season, we were going into August two games above .500, but unfortunately we had a tough run in August and that tough run in August took us out of the hunt for the wild card. ... From myself to Ben to Derek to lots of other people that are here today and throughout the entire organization, but that's not for a lack of commitment or desire to win whatsoever.

"That's from the top all the way down to the bottom of the organization. We are absolutely committed to win; what we need to do is find a way to win."

--Field Level Media