A Letter to Pirates Brass: Figure It Out, or Get Out of Pittsburgh

I am going to change things up a little after I feel the Pirates’ Organization is at its lowest point in my lifetime. This is going to be a vent session, not a recap of the series. The team has had a total of four winning seasons since I was born, but I don’t think I've felt lower as a fan than I did on Saturday evening after what was supposed to be a night we would look back on at the end of the season as a highlight.

Saturday was planned to be an evening of celebration and a night to propel Pirate baseball into the next wave. Thirty-eight thousand fans lined up three and a half hours before first pitch to obtain a Paul Skenes Bobblehead. To the fans' favor, not only was Skenes going to be featured as a bobblehead, but he was also toeing the rubber for the Bucs in what could have been the night of the season.

Unfortunately, due to the lack of urgency, the front office had to build around the best pitching staff that at least a generation of Pirate fans had a chance to call theirs, a stadium full of people were chanting for Bob Nutting to “sell the team.” So much so that Sportsnet Pittsburgh cut the crowd microphones during the game.

I have been a realist, or an apologist for this organization, for my whole life. However, I have never felt as much anger as I did after the game on Saturday. So much so that I thought to myself, if the owner and the front office don’t care about this team, why should I?

Well, Mr. Nutting, I do care about this team. I know a lot of people who do, and we deserve better than what you have done. Oh, you decided to give bobbleheads to everyone in attendance on Saturday? Good for you. Little do you know or care, but that could be every weekend, no matter what team is in town, if you would just put a contender on the field.

We have an owner worth $1.1 billion, but we've spent $100 million once iin the past decade, and we haven’t signed a free agent to a multi-year contract since 2016. Greg Brown said on Friday’s television broadcast that no matter the player or how long they were in Pittsburgh, they care about this organization. Is that true? I’d like to see how Rowdy Tellez feels about the Pirate organization after they designated him for assignment five at-bats shy of his season bonus. Maybe some of the reporters should ask Paul Skenes and Andrew McCutchen how they feel with the loops they have had to go through this season between the managerial decisions and the lack of urgency from a general manager that is in his sixth season of a rebuild and is posting the lowest numbers of a team that had the longest losing season streak in North American sports history.

Oh, and for Shelton, he is one of the only managers to be retained for a sixth season after his first five seasons ended in a losing record. His decisions are inexcusable. Yes, let's put in a pinch hitter that hasn’t seen a live at bat in a week instead of McCutchen, your best hitter on the team. Oh, Cutch reaches base twice Friday night and scores two runs? Let’s bench him for the next two days and have a guy who put out a golden sombrero the same night.

THIS IS RIDICULOUS. We are not playing to develop players. You have done a damn bad job of doing that the last five years. We are playing to win. Play the best players and put your team in the best position to win. Jack Suwinski is striking out nearly half the time he comes to the plate. Tommy Pham has an OPS under .400. THEY DO NOT DESERVE TO PLAY.

Oh, and the teams we are set to play the next four series are a combined 23 games above .500, and the Angels, who are just hanging on by one game over, lead the league in home runs. So, you guys did this to yourself. Figure it out, or get out of Pittsburgh.