Pirates must hold somebody accountable after being swept by White Sox

In a season full of lows, the Pittsburgh Pirates hit two new ones this weekend. Not only were they blown out in three consecutive games by the worst team in the American League, but they also dropped below .500 as a franchise for the first time since 1903.

The Pirates suffered a sweep at the hands of the Chicago White Sox at home, losing 10-1 on Friday, 10-4 on Saturday and 7-2 on Sunday. They were outscored 27-7 and finished with a run differential of -20, which are fittingly horrific numbers for a team that now sits at 10,879-10,880 all-time in franchise history.

Hitting an historic low like this has to prompt some kind of change... right? While the players and the coaching staff deserve plenty of the blame for the weekend's atrocity – really, the entire season's atrocity – accountability must start at the top.

Ben Cherington has to go.

Pirates must hold somebody accountable after being swept by White Sox

The Pirates' general manager said Sunday on his weekly radio show that his "only focus" heading into the July 31 trade deadline is to improve the Pirates' chances of winning in 2026 and beyond. But after spending the last six years making one boneheaded move after another, Cherington hasn't given fans – or his employer, for that matter – any reason to believe that he is capable of doing anything to improve this team.

It's been six years of incompetence, but one need not look any further than this most recent offseason for proof that Cherington is not up to the task of building a winning franchise. His "big" trade of the winter cost him three promising arms and netted him an injured first baseman who would be a starter on exactly zero other Major League rosters, and his brilliant solution for the Pirates' lack of outfield offense was to sign a 38-year-old journeyman who can barely see.

In fact, most of Cherington's moves have actively made the Pirates worse (Remember Bryan De La Cruz?). Unsurprisingly, the team has a 333-475 (.412) record since Cherington took over in 2020, with only the Washington Nationals (.405) and the Colorado Rockies (.367) posting worse records in that span.

Pittsburgh has only had four winning seasons since 1992, three of which came from 2013-15 – all postseason appearances – plus 2018. All four of these winning seasons came before Cherington took over, and he has since left the franchise in an unequivocally worse place than where he found it.

Every day Cherington keeps his job is an insult to what was once one of baseball's most celebrated franchises, not to mention the players who represent it or the fans who support it. At this point, no time is the wrong time to pull the plug on the captain of this sinking ship.

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