Bob Nutting gets rare break as another NL Central owner draws the ire of fans

If any owner in baseball knows what it's like to be despised and lambasted by their own fanbase, it's Bob Nutting.

The Pittsburgh Pirates' chief has spent nearly all of his tenure as owner looking for ways to reduce payroll and limit spending. Even in an offseason where the Pirates have added serious talent and signed a marquee free agent (Ryan O'Hearn), Pirates fans are wary of Nutting's longstanding penny-pinching habits.

However, Nutting isn't the NL Central owner currently facing the most heat. Instead, that would be Phil Castellini of the Cincinnati Reds, who received a hostile welcome at a Xavier basketball game last week. Following the team's first playoff appearance since 2020, the Reds have been reluctant to do much of anything this offseason, perhaps drawing some negative attention away from Nutting.

Reds' Phil Castellini may be surpassing Bob Nutting in fanbase-ownership relationship struggles

Like the Pirates, the Reds aimed their sights at Kyle Schwarber at the onset of the offseason, desperately hoping to add his powerful bat to the middle of their lineup.

Unlike the Pirates, though, ever since missing out on Schwarber, the Reds haven't done much. Whereas Pittsburgh has added O'Hearn, Brandon Lowe, Jhostynxon Garcia, and Gregory Soto, Cincinnati has signed JJ Bleday and added a quartet of relievers to their bullpen mix. Considering that the Reds are coming off a season with a winning record and postseason berth, it's hard to fathom how hesitant they've been in adding talent.

Now, it is worth pointing out that the Reds' projected Opening Day payroll ($112 million) still eclipses the Pirates' number ($95 million) by a significant margin. That being said, the Pirates are on pace to add money (roughly $8 million) to their end-of-year payroll from 2025, while the Reds are set to cut spending by about $7 million.

There's no team in the league that can complain to Bucs fans about ownership and spending, but it is pretty damning for the third-place finisher in the NL Central to be so clearly upstaged this offseason by the last-place squad. Credit to the Pirates for not giving up after Schwarber chose to remain in Philadelphia, but for all the conversation surrounding them needing to capitalize on Paul Skenes' window, the Reds are doing a really poor job of doing the same for Hunter Greene.

Hopefully Nutting enjoys his reprieve from the central focus of baseball fan ire. If Pittsburgh is competitive come the trade deadline, the calls for him to add more money to the books will be more raucous than ever.