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Pirates Notebook: Bob Nutting Discusses Clubhouse Atmosphere, Getting Back to Winning

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BRADENTON, Fla. – Bob Nutting had his annual press conference with the media right before the start of Spring Training games, and as you might expect, the topic of the team comments from the last week came up. Nutting discussed the comments made by the players about the organization’s communication, along with how close he feels the team is to winning. (Note: The interview was held before the Corey Dickerson trade, just to give some reference.)

“I think some of the comments were correct and fair,” Nutting said. “I think they’re helping to build what we need to do, which is put the most important things up front to make sure we do have that winning culture, to make sure that we have the right tone in the clubhouse, that they’re focused on the right work. I think some of the comments that were made were correct. If you look at the culture that we had in ’13, ’14, ’15, we weren’t focused on external challenges, we weren’t focused on payroll issues, we were focused on how we go out every day and win baseball games. You look at what the Brewers were doing last year. They were focused on young, exciting team that was out very aggressively winning baseball games. I think you have a young group of players that have a lot that they want to prove and a lot that they can show to the fans in Pittsburgh.”

One of the issues on the surface is that it seems to be a conflicting message that the Pirates traded two of their best players away, only to follow up with comments about how they are looking to contend this year. The actions of trading away your two best players don’t match the words of trying to contend. But as I noted earlier, the Pirates also are looking to try and contend every year, rather than going through specific ups and downs, which might explain why Nutting didn’t feel the moves were conflicting.

“I really don’t think it’s a conflicting message,” Nutting said. “I think it’s tying in both of those traits and everything Neal has done throughout this offseason is built to make the team stronger. We brought six players back. Four of those are going to have active roles, two are going to have future roles with the club. I think we’re stronger as an organization and that has to be our focus and will continue to be our focus.”

Nutting said that he believes the organization still has a good culture and a strong system. He noted the work that Ray Searage has done with pitchers, along with some other points that are still held beliefs throughout the game. But ultimately, he said they needed to prove to outsiders that they have the goal to win.

“How quickly that translates into a broader reaction or belief in that, we need to prove it,” Nutting said. “We can’t simply say it. We’re going to be in a position in April and May when our actions on the field are going to have to speak louder than my words today.”

The player comments this week have paled in comparison to the comments from fans. There have been petitions for MLB to remove Nutting as an owner, and complete outrage over the trades of McCutchen and Cole, not to mention the struggles the Pirates have had. Nutting said that he does listen to and respect the anger and concern from the fans, and the way they can honor the fans is by performing and focusing on winning.

“The most important piece of that is I personally, and we as an organization, appreciate and respect the passion of the fans,” Nutting said. “Understand the frustration and the anger, and just as greatly appreciate when the team is playing well, it’s that same passion and commitment and engagement with the club that drove the excitement when the team was playing well. I really believe that commitment and passion plays on both sides. We embrace it collectively, I embrace it personally. What we need to do this year is to earn those fans’ trust by performing on the field. We need to earn their support as we perform and as we go forward.”

Can the Pirates Win?

Neal Huntington has said that the Pirates can contend this year. In his address to the team earlier this week, Bob Nutting also said that he sees a team that can win. Nutting expanded on that, discussing what he saw on the field in the first week of workouts.

“I really am encouraged,” Nutting said. “I really do think that that winning culture that we all are talking about — you’re hearing it from the players, now you’re hearing it from the coaching staff, you’re certainly hearing it from the front office and from me — is an important part of what this year’s going to be about, an important part of what Spring Training’s going to be about, and when you see the guys out there working, I believe they’re embracing it and leading it.”

In regards to getting back to the 2013-15 culture that seems to have been missing, Nutting said that he feels the Pirates made a start towards that this past week.

“I think that some of it may have come out of reminding us what some of the challenges were, reminding and questioning what the tone had been,” Nutting said. “But most importantly laying the gauntlet down to set the tone going forward, that this is a team that’s going to be committed to winning baseball games, to working hard every day, growing and building and ’18 but not looking it as a year that’s only going to grow and build as we continue to get better.”

I’ve discussed how the Pirates have been in No-Man’s Land in recent years. They haven’t been good enough to go for it at the deadline and try for the playoffs. They also haven’t been bad enough to justify a full rebuild. That situation came up, but Nutting feels they are beyond that now.

“I think we have gotten out of that,” Nutting said. “I think we’ve made a clear directional shift this offseason. I would have clearly said 75 games is not good enough, clearly said we need to move forward in a direction where we’re going to build a stronger team, clearly said we’re going to need to go younger to bring that energy and talent into the club. We also clearly said that it’s not a five-year rebuild. We are closer. We have too much talent – too much talent in the minor-league system, too much young talent this year that’s going to be on the major-league club. We’re not in a position where we need to pull back for three years and go through the process that the Astros went through or that the Cubs went through five years.”

I agree with this assessment. I do think the Pirates are closer to contending right now than most give them credit for. I don’t agree that the winning will start this year, but I do agree that this team is close. My only concern right now comes from the other part of this press conference, regarding how the Pirates act when they get back to winning.

Other Notes

**Nutting said that the team hasn’t identified specific projects or places to invest the MLB Advanced Media cash. Each team received a one-time payment this year of $50 M for the sale of BAM Tech technology to Disney for their streaming service.

**Nutting talked about the decision to trade Andrew McCutchen, which he called an “agonizing decision.”

“What brought me around was the deep, absolute conviction by the entire baseball operations team, from Frank, from Neal, from Clint, from the analytics team, that it was the right thing to do to make this team better as we go forward. I wanted to be personally confident that we had turned over every alternative, we turned over every stone, we looked for every option, before we made a decision that was personally agonizing and agonizing for our fans. At the end of the day, my job also though is to have faith in the people and the process that we put in place, and we had overwhelming conviction within that team that we were doing the right thing for the club in both the short-term and the long-term.”

**Nutting wouldn’t comment on specific players for possible long-term extensions: “I’ll cross a line if I start talking about individual players. That’s a mistake. It’s not my role. I shouldn’t do that.”

**A lot of the questions for Nutting, and a lot of the answers, really highlighted the disadvantages for small market teams. Nutting was asked whether the small market teams need to stand up and try to get change in the game.

“I think there’s honestly a nuanced answer to that. Yes, absolutely we need to work as hard as we can to make sure that the system is advantageous to Pittsburgh as possible. Flat out, we need to do that. At the same token, we will not, have not, cannot allow the system to become even a glimmer of an excuse inside the organization. I’m never going to use it as an excuse. If we don’t have faith that we can compete in the existing system, we shouldn’t be playing the game. I think we embrace the tough reality. We don’t sugarcoat it. We embrace the tough reality. Given opportunities, can we work to modify the system? Yes. Is that something that will ever be a primary focus, a public focus, or something that we use as an excuse? We can’t. Once we go down that path, every club that has taken that route have had serious challenges internally and externally. We cannot give ourselves leeway, and we cannot build in excuses.”

Tim Williams
Tim Williams
Tim is the owner, producer, editor, and lead writer of PiratesProspects.com. He has been running Pirates Prospects since 2009, becoming the first new media reporter and outlet covering the Pirates at the MLB level in 2011 and 2012. His work can also be found in Baseball America, where he has been a contributor since 2014 and the Pirates' correspondent since 2019.

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