Pittsburgh Pirates: It’s time for Bob Nutting to open checkbook

With the hiring of new General Manager Ben Cherington, it’s now time for Pittsburgh Pirates Owner Bob Nutting to put more financial resources into his baseball team.

To be fair, Pittsburgh Pirates fans have been calling for Nutting, who became the team’s principal owner in 2007, to raise the team’s payroll for nearly a decade. In the 12 years that Nutting has owned the team, the Pirates have zero division titles, three playoff appearances, have finished last in the National League Central division on five occasions, and are consistently in the bottom-third of team payroll.

Cherington may be the highest-profile signing the Pirates have made in decades–GM, manager, or player. With the hiring of first-time manager Derek Shelton, the Pirates figure to cut a decent amount of salary replacing Clint Hurdle. According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Hurdle was making $3 million in 2019, fifth-most among managers.

It’s probable Pittsburgh is at a disadvantage in signing any splash names this winter or acquiring any high profile MLB ready players because of the late firing of former GM Neil Huntington. The Pirates may decide to enter a rebuild, however, and they may move on from some key players such as Starling Marte instead.

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Most teams try to plant seeds at the GM meetings in the middle of November. Cherington, however, was hired four days after this year’s meetings ended, so he wasn’t able to get a feel for who may be available for trades or meet with players’ agents. But Cherington is a long-time executive who is sure to have an impressive list of contacts around the league, as well as the respect of many other executives; outside of Boston, that is.

The Winter Meetings run from Dec. 9-12 this offseason, and it’s usually the busiest time for front offices. Nutting needs to make it clear to Cherington and the fan base, come these meetings, that he is committed to allocating the resources necessary to remove the franchise from mediocrity.

Cherington’s time in the front office for the Boston Red Sox, including his time as GM, led to a lot of talent being acquired by the organization. There were some questionable transactions along the way, but Cherington had his hand in, or was the main reason, for a bevy of impact players that have or do play for Boston.

Player payroll is less of an indicator of a team’s success than at any time since the advent of free agency, but what winning teams and great organizations do now more than ever is allocating money into resources off the field that helps put the best team on it. Scouting is no longer just a handful of guys assigned to different areas of the country or opposing teams. Front offices are no longer places where the presidents and general managers are surrounded by yes men afraid to be creative, at least not in good front offices.

According to the Pittsburgh Pirates official MLB.com site, Nutting has “demonstrated his commitment to providing Pirates players with the best-of-class facilities. In 2015, the Pirates unveiled a state-of-the-art performance center at Pirate City and home clubhouse at McKechnie Field – the Pirates spring training facilities in Bradenton, FL. His tenure has also included the construction of the Pirates Latin American headquarters and training academy in the Dominican Republic.”

Despite the upgraded and new facilities, Nutting himself stated the Pirates have been struggling to develop talent on a consistent enough basis.

“I think that it is time for another fresh look,” said Nutting after the firing of Huntington. “It’s time for another burst of innovation. It’s time for a fresh approach. I think that many of the ideas that we had in place 10 years ago, lots of clubs are doing now. The use of analytics, we were way out in front. I’m not sure we are at this point. Our development process, we got way out in front, I’m not sure that we are.”

Since 2016 the Pirates’ payroll has dropped over $15 million, according to Baseball Prospectus. Opening Day payroll was nearly $100 million for Pittsburgh in 2016, while in 2019, it was almost $75 million. In an age where baseball is at it’s most profitable, Nutting has begun to spend and earn money as if his organization was a low-value team such as the Miami Marlins or Kansas City Royals instead of the mid-market franchise the Pirates are.

The Pittsburgh Pirates need to start making investments into their organization now that a credible GM like Cherington is in charge. Whether that be in the players on the field or in the front office to spearhead a new analytics department and player development system, Nutting needs to allow Cherington to spend money to get this once-storied franchise out of the doldrums the owner put it in.