Kevin Gorman: Bob Nutting must own up to Pirates' problems, which start at the top

Bob Nutting heard the calls for a housecleaning and heeded the warnings Pittsburgh Pirates fans wouldn’t stand for the status quo.

The Pirates chairman started firing away, like he was skeet shooting at Seven Springs.

But he got a bit backward.

Before the Pirates played their season finale, they fired manager Clint Hurdle. Before they fired Hurdle, they canned Michael Ryan at Double-A Altoona. Before the Pirates “parted ways” with president Frank Coonelly, they allowed him to negotiate their new television contract with AT&T SportsNet.

Sounds more like bottom to top, doesn’t it?

So it’s safe to wonder whether the Pirates will fire general manager Neal Huntington before they introduce former Penguins executive Travis Williams as their new president or if they will allow Huntington to hire a new manager before ultimately deciding to find a new GM.

At this point, nothing would surprise me, aside from Nutting selling the baseball club, anyway.

But, seriously, you have to wonder what the Pirates are doing here. Nutting does not come across as the knee-jerk reaction type who would fire people just to appease public outcry. He’s more methodical, someone who studies his next move before making it. But his silence, outside of a written statement, throughout this process has been stunning. Nutting apparently is waiting to speak until Williams is introduced, when they can present a united front. Until then, let’s take Nutting at his words.

Upon firing Hurdle, Nutting expressed his appreciation for Hurdle’s “leadership, inspiration, advice and friendship” and called it an “honor to work with him for the past nine seasons.” That tells you it wasn’t an easy decision — Nutting called it “easily” the most difficult of his tenure — even if it was the right one. Hurdle had lost control of the clubhouse, which tuned him out when the message had become repetitive and redundant.

Next, Nutting offered a strong vote of confidence for Huntington, assistant general manager Kyle Stark, player development director Larry Broadway and amateur scouting director Joe DelliCarri: “While we felt it was time to make a change at the managerial level, I strongly believe that Neal Huntington and the leadership team that he has assembled are the right people to continue to lead our baseball operations department.”

Nutting even went so far as not to scapegoat Hurdle: “The entire organization is accountable and that begins with me.”

What Nutting didn’t do was mention Coonelly in any way, which is more noticeable now that he’s leaving.

But Nutting is right. This begins with him. He’s not just the owner but the face of the franchise. I wrote as much when the Pirates traded Andrew McCutchen and Gerrit Cole — the face and ace of their franchise — in a three-day span in January 2018. It’s a role Nutting is clearly uncomfortable with, as he’s more businessman than baseball man.

Instead, Nutting has leaned for so long on Coonelly and Huntington, the duo Nutting once called the best management team in baseball. Together, they helped the Pirates stop a 20-year losing streak and enjoy three consecutive postseasons. That success bought them four years of being mired in mediocrity, before Nutting ordered “an extensive review of every element of our baseball operations.”

But Nutting knows the Pirates are a losing proposition, especially at the gate. Attendance dropped by a million from 2015 to ‘18, and the slight uptick this season wasn’t significant progress.

That’s where Williams comes in.

His background is in hockey, not baseball, but he worked for a Pittsburgh pro sports team that knows how to promote its product and connect with a young fan base. The Penguins enjoyed smashing success in winning three Stanley Cup championships in Williams’ decade there, rising from chief legal counsel to chief operating officer, and the Pirates should benefit from his long-standing relationships with politicians and corporate sponsors.

“It is very clear that we need to and will be better,” Nutting said in his statement. “There is no quick fix, but we are absolutely committed to the task. I believe we can and will achieve it.”

Whether Huntington and his baseball operations department can achieve it is up for debate. Everything from trades to free-agent signings to drafting and development has blown up in his face lately, but counting on Williams to reconstruct the entire organization from top to bottom this offseason is a risky proposition, especially for a team that tends to get everything backwards.

If Nutting wants Williams to succeed, he will allow him to oversee everything from Huntington’s extensive review to the hiring of the next manager. If Williams is as smart as everyone says, he will take the time to conduct his own review before making major decisions to appease angry fans.

But Nutting is right about one thing: The entire organization is accountable. And that begins with the owner finally owning up to his shortcomings. Unlike his housecleaning, that always starts at the top.