Pirates' Owner Bob Nutting Discusses Direction Of Organization
PITTSBURGH (93-7 THE FAN) -- Pirates' owner Bob Nutting joined Seibel, Starkey and Miller on Sports Radio 93-7 The FAN to talk about the direction of his organization.
Nutting told us about his four-week investigation into what went wrong with the Pirates this year, as well as what went right because in his words, "I believe that we didn't get to 16 games over .500 by chance, by luck."
We also talked with Nutting about his thoughts on the trade deadline, and if during his investigation, he came to the conclusion that he wished the team did more to win now, and called the results "unacceptable."
One of the more interesting offseason story lines with the organization was team President Frank Coonelly's vote of confidence for the front office staff, and Nuttings's silence throughout that time. The Pirates owner went into detail and told us why he eventually did decide to retain his upper management team despite the public perception that they did not have his approval.
We got into the Pirates payroll with Nutting as well, including the amount it will cost them to keep their own free agents and arbitration eligible players, and his expectation for growing the payroll in the upcoming season.
One of the public perceptions of Bob Nutting is that he doesn't care about the performance of the team on the field, but when asked about the past season, told us about the heartbreak he went through watching the team's collapse at the end of the year, saying you're in sports to win.
Ever since we learned of the interest of the Penguins ownership group in purchasing the Pirates, fans have wondered what it would take to get Nutting to sell the team, and he told us whether or not he would ever consider letting the organization go if the right offer came along.
We wrapped things up with Nutting asking him about the future of manager Clint Hurdle as he enters into the final year of his contract.
Click the link below to listen to the full interview:
