Pirates insider reveals Bob Nutting may be flip-flopping on Ben Cherington's job

This Pittsburgh Pirates season has put everyone in the front office on the hot seat. We've already seen Derek Shelton receive the short end of the stick for his rough start to the campagn, and after recent reports, that may not be the only major firing the team undertakes.

According to John Perrotto of Pittsburgh Baseball Now, "Bob Nutting is having second thoughts on retaining Ben Cherington" through this totality of this mess of a season. Not long ago, Perrotto reported that the team was considering keeping Cherington through the season and letting go of team president Travis Williams instead. All of a sudden, that has changed.

The front office went into this season thinking they were going to be in the playoff hunt, as did Nutting. Perrotto also added that Nutting raised the baseball operations budget by $20 million this offseason in attempt to get this team on track entering 2025. Cherington decided to "spend a significant amount of that money on analytics and technology" instead of MLB-ready talent.

Pirates insider reveals that Bob Nutting may have had enough with Ben Cherington.

Perrotto previously reported that Cherington had two years left on his contract. Cherington evidently believed that he had time to fix the issues that he'd caused, so in response, he made an effort to rebuild some of the research and development system down on the farm in his image. The offensive development team has not been very successful during Cherington's time as general manager, and it must be asked: is he the one who should be hiring the people to rebuild his own broken program?

One thing that stings a little bit, though, was that the Pirates were buyers at last year's deadline, and this added money could have gone toward players that could have given this team a better chance to compete. Whether that opportunity was on the free agent market, or whether the Pirates would've been able to absorb additional money through trade, this cash could have been used towards building a better offense to complement this pitching staff.

The Pirates have the worst offense in baseball with a 42-61 record. In the long run, Cherington's choice could help them with more internal development, something they do not do very well. Nick Gonzales is the only notable hitter this team has developed under Cherington. Still, it clearly made little impact on Cherington's current roster, and could dictate his fate.

Now that Nutting is having these second thoughts on Cherington, there is a real chance that he could be fired at any point. No one is happy with where the Pirates are at right now, and that could end up with more changes in the front office.