Over the past two weeks the Post Gazette and now DK on Sports ran just huge, detailed articles on how the Pirates are struggling, even in debt, despite their low payrolls. Of course the one sided DK article was his usual pathetic puff stuff believing everything fed to him and the PG had MLB experts refuting the Pirates claims. But despite that, both had angles on how the Pirates either struggle to make money or in fact, are losing money.
Joe Starkey, summoning up some common sense approach today then blasted Bob Nutting.
I can’t be the only one confused here.
Two local publications have posted fresh stories on the Pirates’ finances — and have come to violently different conclusions.
The Post-Gazette’s Mark Belko reported that the Pirates are profitable and could easily be spending more on players.
Dejan Kovacevic also reported on his site that the Pirates are losing money and have “taken on debt the past couple of years, including 2024.”
Both are fascinating deep dives.
Both are also stocked with enough financial minutiae to make your head spin like a Paul Skenes splinker.
The bottom line for me: If the finances are as challenging as these stories claim, why hasn’t Bob Nutting sold the team? What’s in this for him?
If he’s actually interested in winning, then why isn’t Nutting already fighting Major League Baseball before the current collective bargaining agreement expires on Dec. 1, 2026?
And why wasn’t he first in the protest line before the last CBA was ratified in 2022? To the contrary, he quietly signed off on it.
It seems awfully curious that Nutting would put himself through such financial hardship every year if there wasn’t something in it for him. And again, if the Pirates are in such a disadvantageous position that even reaching, say, a payroll of $100 million would leave their business model in jeopardy, as team president Travis Williams suggests in the Post-Gazette piece, why isn’t Nutting fighting MLB tooth and nail to improve the situation?
See, despite the differing conclusions of these two stories, there was a shared theme: Both, in part, painted the Pirates as a financially stressed organization. Kovacevic’s piece reported that as literally true, and the Pirates portrayed themselves as such in Belko’s piece, even if others decidedly did not.
Joe Starkey, summoning up some common sense approach today then blasted Bob Nutting.
Joe Starkey: If the Pirates are financially stressed, why hasn’t Bob Nutting sold? And will he fight MLB?
I can’t be the only one confused here.
Two local publications have posted fresh stories on the Pirates’ finances — and have come to violently different conclusions.
The Post-Gazette’s Mark Belko reported that the Pirates are profitable and could easily be spending more on players.
Dejan Kovacevic also reported on his site that the Pirates are losing money and have “taken on debt the past couple of years, including 2024.”
Both are fascinating deep dives.
Both are also stocked with enough financial minutiae to make your head spin like a Paul Skenes splinker.
The bottom line for me: If the finances are as challenging as these stories claim, why hasn’t Bob Nutting sold the team? What’s in this for him?
If he’s actually interested in winning, then why isn’t Nutting already fighting Major League Baseball before the current collective bargaining agreement expires on Dec. 1, 2026?
And why wasn’t he first in the protest line before the last CBA was ratified in 2022? To the contrary, he quietly signed off on it.
It seems awfully curious that Nutting would put himself through such financial hardship every year if there wasn’t something in it for him. And again, if the Pirates are in such a disadvantageous position that even reaching, say, a payroll of $100 million would leave their business model in jeopardy, as team president Travis Williams suggests in the Post-Gazette piece, why isn’t Nutting fighting MLB tooth and nail to improve the situation?
See, despite the differing conclusions of these two stories, there was a shared theme: Both, in part, painted the Pirates as a financially stressed organization. Kovacevic’s piece reported that as literally true, and the Pirates portrayed themselves as such in Belko’s piece, even if others decidedly did not.
Joe Starkey: If the Pirates are financially stressed, why hasn’t Bob Nutting sold? And will he fight MLB?
I can’t be the only one confused here. Two local publications have posted fresh stories on the Pirates’ finances — and have come to violently...
www.post-gazette.com
