Pirates' ownership doesn't fare well in latest rankings (to no one's surprise)

At this point, we've all seen the billboards, the petitions and the protests from the Pittsburgh Pirates faithful. But as it turns out, owner Bob Nutting isn't only unpopular among his own team's fans.

Zachary D. Rymer of Bleacher Report recently ranked all the MLB team owners and ranked Nutting 29th out of 30, ahead of only Miami Marlins owner Bruce Sherman. (It's honestly quite difficult to imagine an owner worse than Nutting... Marlins fans, you good?)

In his assessment of each team's ownership situation, Rymer noted that financials matter "only insomuch as to how they relate to the quality of the product. If a franchise's value and revenue are outpacing payroll, that only benefits ownership." Nutting's net worth as of 2020 is $1.1 billion, and the team is valued at $1.32 billion – nearly a 70% increase over its purchase price of $92 million.

"The Pirates' value and revenues are more or less in line with their market size," Rymer wrote. "From these angles, at least, you can make excuses for Nutting's refusal to consistently invest in payroll. It becomes harder to do so when you notice that his net worth is measured in billions. He ought to be treating the Bucs like his pride and joy, whereas he never spends in free agency and otherwise skimps on everything. Fans are right to want him to sell."

Pirates' ownership doesn't fare well in latest rankings (to no one's surprise)

In his critique of the Nutting-era Pirates, Rymer pointed out that only the Kansas City Royals have suffered more losses since 1996, the year the Nutting family purchased the team. The Royals, however, won an American League pennant in 2014 and a World Series title in 2015. Meanwhile, the Pirates have just three (brief) playoff appearances and four winning seasons to show for the last three decades.

The Pirates are about to head into the 30th season of the Nutting era, and, as Rymer put it, "It'll take nothing less than a World Series title to redeem the first 29." Honestly, even that might not be enough to vindicate him after the past three decades.

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