Andrew McCutchen speaks out after Pirates TV broadcast cuts 'Sell the Team' chants

Pittsburgh Pirates fans frustrated with team ownership have made their voices heard this season – that is, until the TV broadcast silenced them.

There have been "Sell the team" chants at a number of Pirates home games this season, but the chants got a little too loud for Bob Nutting on Saturday when they came from the largest crowd of the season at 37,713 fans – many of whom showed up hours early to receive their Paul Skenes bobblehead.

As the Pirates trailed 3-0 against the Cleveland Guardians in the top of the eighth inning, the "Sell the team" chants from the sell-out crowd were so loud that they could be heard clearly over the television broadcast – until they couldn't.

SportsNet Pittsburgh, which is co-owned by Nutting, very obviously cut off the crowd mic mid-broadcast while the chants continued throughout PNC Park. But the damage had already been done.

The Pirates hold a 1291-1543 record (.456) since 2007, when Nutting took over primary ownership of the franchise. The team has made the postseason just three times and finished above .500 just four times in 19 seasons. This season, the Pirates had a projected Opening Day payroll of $89,975,000, the fourth-lowest in the league. Unsurprisingly, at 8-15, they sit at dead last in the National League Central.

It's fitting that this latest embarrassment for Nutting and the Pirates came on Skenes' bobblehead day, as Skenes himself has been the catalyst for the intensified frustration from the fanbase. It's clear that Nutting has no idea what he has in Skenes, even if the fans and the media do. He doesn't get a free pass anymore; the mediocrity has to end now.

Andrew McCutchen speaks out after Pirates TV broadcast cuts 'Sell the Team' chants

Veteran outfielder Andrew McCutchen heard the chants. It was impossible not to. The 2013 NL MVP acknowledged fans' frustration, while also noting its effect on the rest of the team.

“I understand where they’re coming from," McCutchen said (via Kevin Gorman of TribLIVE). "I’ve been here long enough, so I get it. I just hate it for the guys who haven’t been a part of it and haven’t been here for very long. They’re like, ‘Man, these people seem pretty upset.’ You have to go out there and try to perform and do well when there’s this cloud over the team."

Indeed, many of McCutchen's teammates don't carry the same baggage he does as a member of the last "good" Pirates teams from 2013-15. They haven't been here long enough to see how Nutting's stewardship of one of baseball's most storied franchises has run that franchise straight into the ground over the last two decades. McCutchen understands the frustration more than most, and he takes it personally.

“When I hear it — as much as I hate to hear it — I also understand,” McCutchen said. “So, I’m going to do my best to perform because I’m not trying to end my career losing. I’ll tell you that right now: I don’t want to end my career and hat’s off, I lost. I’m trying to do what I can. I want to do my best. I know the guys in here, they want to do their best. That’s just not how I pictured things going."

The broadcast incident is just the latest in a series of recent PR nightmares that clearly show that Nutting has little to no regard for the Pirates fanbase. If not for Skenes, if not for McCutchen, then for whom or what will Nutting finally start investing in his team?

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