Pirates owner Bob Nutting addresses Bryan Reynolds talks, RSN collapse, payroll issues
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BRADENTON, Fla. — Pittsburgh Pirates chairman Bob Nutting said he is pushing for the club to sign Bryan Reynolds to a long-term contract extension and isn’t ruling out the possibility of signing a player to a $100 million contract in the near future.
Nutting touched on those and other topics in a 10-minute interview with the Tribune-Review on Saturday, just an hour before the Grapefruit League opener against the Toronto Blue Jays at LECOM Park.
“It’s definitely inside the realm of possibility,” Nutting said of a nine-figure player deal. “I can see that happening. I think it’s going to be important.”
Whether such a contract goes to Reynolds, an All-Star outfielder who requested a trade last fall after turning down a reported six-year, $80 million offer from the Pirates, or someone like 24-year-old shortstop Oneil Cruz remains to be seen. Reynolds countered with an eight-year, $134 million deal, at an average annual value of $16.75 million.
Nutting and team president Travis Williams both spent time talking with Reynolds at Pirate City this past week, though Reynolds categorized them as “casual” conversations that didn’t involve contract numbers. Nutting said he would leave that work to general manager Ben Cherington and the baseball operations staff.
“We try very hard to filter out those emotional outputs,” Nutting said. “It’s not really what matters. What matters to me is that Bryan knows, and I hope he does after this week, how much we appreciate what he’s doing for the team, how much we respect him as a person and a player. He really is a good baseball player. He really is a dedicated, hard-working, wonderful part of the team. And we would love to find a way to make that work.”
Nutting, however, was instrumental in bringing back five-time All-Star outfielder and 2013 NL MVP Andrew McCutchen, the Pirates’ most popular player of the PNC Park era, on a one-year, $5 million contract as a free agent five years after trading him to San Francisco.
“I’m thrilled to have Andrew back with the team. He’s a remarkable player, a remarkable person, a great Pittsburgher,” Nutting said. “But I think our whole baseball operations staff is equally pleased to have him back. It wasn’t a lot of arm twisting, the level of enthusiasm to get Andrew back in the fold, to get him back in black and gold where he belongs. Everybody inside the Pirates organization is enthusiastic. I’m personally incredibly enthusiastic. As importantly, I think Andrew, (wife) Maria and their family are enthusiastic. It’s a great fit. It’s where he should be.”
One development that could affect the Pirates is the pending collapse of the regional sports network system, including their television flagship. The Wall Street Journal reported that Warner Bros. Discovery, owners of AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh, informed teams that it intends to cease the channels that broadcast Pirates and Penguins games.
Nutting said the news was “not a surprise” and assured Pirates fans that their games will be broadcast this season. He added that it “wasn’t appropriate” to discuss details of what might happen in the next iteration, though a possibility is a partnership with new Penguins owner John Henry of Fenway Sports Group, which owns 80% of the New England Sports Network that carries Boston Red Sox and Bruins games.
“It’s definitely major-league-wide. It’s definitely a topic we’ve spent a lot of time on over the past 18 months,” Nutting said. “It’s not a surprise. Nothing changed last night. We all have a good, clear sense of what the overall RSN system is moving. Within that, it’s going to be hard. It’s a real challenge.”
Diamond Sports Group, a division of Sinclair Broadcast Group that operates Bally Sports regional sports networks, missed a $140 million debt interest payment last week and is considering filing for bankruptcy.
“It’s a real challenge for RSN, for Diamond, the Bally RSNs — which is about half of baseball — and a current and present challenge for the AT&T clubs,” Nutting told the Trib. “I think it’ll be a challenge for baseball overall. We’ve been working on it. I think we’re reasonably prepared. We’re paying attention to it. Maybe the most important thing on the RSNs, given the uncertainty (after) the public announcement (Friday), we are 100% committed to make sure that every game is available to our fans in a convenient spot where they’re used to looking for it, with the crew they have produce the games. I don’t see any risk for the fans or the broadcast for 2023.”
As for pumping money into the Pirates’ payroll, Nutting emphasized that the club has “fairly effectively” rotated the money it spent on the “overall baseball bucket,” including player development, scouting and infrastructure work at their academy in the Dominican Republic. Nutting compared these Pirates to their predecessors of a decade ago, when the team ended a streak of 20 consecutive losing seasons by earning three straight wild-card berths. This team is coming off back-to-back 100-loss seasons.
“We’re at a place now where we need to be putting the foot on the gas at the major-league club,” Nutting said, “much as we were in 2012, ’13 and ’14.”
Nutting has borne the brunt of public criticism from fans for the Pirates’ paltry payroll, which ranked 28th out of 30 teams in baseball at $61,196,070 last year, per an Associated Press report.
“I really appreciate the passion of the fans. I appreciate their interest in the team. I appreciate their concern. I respect that, so I listen to all of those concerns and take them seriously,” Nutting said. “At the same time, what we need to do is be consistent in our process and our plan.
“I watched that work through 2011 and 2012. We took big hits in both of those years but stayed the course, and thank goodness that we did. We certainly took some hits the past couple years, but we stayed the course and built an incredible foundation. I can’t wait to see this team on the field right now. There’s a young core, we had a chance to solidify, add a lot of talent at the lower level, watched that group develop.
“Now, there’s pressure and competition coming up behind them and to be able to add on top of that some of the veteran presences that we have, that’s exactly what we’ve been talking about doing. So I appreciate and respect the fans’ concern. It’s critically important that we stay to the plan and process because I’ve seen it work before and I think we’re going to see it work this year.”
Despite calls to sell the team, including an online petition started by one fan, Nutting said he intends to stay the course on the Pirates’ plan to build a contender largely through drafting and development and add via free agency when appropriate.
“My role and responsibility is to do what I believe and what our group collectively believes is the right thing,” Nutting said. “Having confidence and faith in the direction we’re heading allows us to make tough decisions.”