Pirates team president just invited a firestorm from fans if 2026 season goes wrong

PiratesFest largely went off without a hitch this year. After years of management dodging fans, hostile question-and-answer sessions, and the standard chorus of "Sell the team" chants, the Pittsburgh Pirates' efforts to improve the club this offseason were well received at the annual fan event.

Team owner Bob Nutting didn't participate in the Q&A with team management (although he was at the event), but his trusty mouthpiece—team president Travis Williams—did, alongside general manager Ben Cherington and skipper Don Kelly.

While the Q&A wasn't contentious like years past, the harder-hitting questions started right from the jump, with Williams being asked about his comments from the end of the 2025 season, where he stated that the organization's goal was "to make the playoffs in 2026. Period. Full stop." Initially, those comments were, understandably, met with skepticism. But the front office has backed that up to this point in the offseason.

Williams doubled down on that statement at PiratesFest, even going so far as to repeat his "Period. Full stop," catchphrase that is now permanently attached to his legacy. But he took things a step further, and made a request to Pirates fans that he might come to regret in the near future.

Pirates team president's call to fans could come back to haunt him

Williams brought up accountability as part of the team's process in righting the ship going into the 2026 season, and even urged Pirates fans to be involved on that front:

"We're going to hold ourselves accountable to (the goal of making the playoffs). We want you to hold us accountable to that." When answering another fan's question, Williams even more bluntly stated, "You, the fans, need to hold us accountable to that."

Of course, there's nothing wrong with Williams making such a statement. But it's a gutsy call given how freely and aggressively Pirates fans have expressed their displeasure with the team's management in the recent past—the Surfside advertisement and Bucco Bricks fiascoes of early last season were huge PR nightmares that only magnified fans' anger while watching a ballclub that still hasn't even sniffed a winning record since 2018. "Sell the team" chants became commonplace at PNC Park last summer and even started popping up at other non-baseball sporting events in Pittsburgh.

When the players aren't on the field, all eyes are on the front office, which has been under immense pressure to build a contending team this offseason. While progress has certainly been made, fans are already getting antsy, thanks to the unresolved Andrew McCutchen saga, as well as the team losing out on Eugenio Suarez to the division-rival Reds.

Two things that are abundantly clear—it's been too long since the Pirates have played winning baseball, and this fanbase is not shy about making its anger known. All wrongs can be righted if the team actually contends in 2026, as Williams suggested. But until then, Pirates fans will have no problem holding the team accountable. Williams and co. need to be careful what they wish for.