White Sox rumors should put pressure on Bob Nutting to sell Pirates

An MLB owner is reportedly open to selling his team. Unfortunately for Pittsburgh Pirates fans, it's not Bob Nutting.

After an historically bad season – the worst season in Major League history, to be exact – Jerry Reinsdorf is apparently seriously contemplating selling the Chicago White Sox. Reinsdorf's club finished with a 41-121 record this year, which set the MLB record for most losses in a single season in the modern era. The White Sox also fired manager Pedro Grifol in August after less than two years on the job.

Unsurprisingly, the White Sox's disastrous season led to plenty of calls from fans for Reinsdorf to sell the team of which he has been the majority owner since 1981.

Two days after the team earned its 121st loss of the season, Reinsdorf penned a letter to fans in which he acknowledged that the season was a "failure" and "embarrassing."

Meanwhile, in Pittsburgh, fans are organizing protests and calling for Nutting to sell the Pirates after the team finished 76-86 for the second season in a row. Statistically, the Pirates' season wasn't nearly as bad as the White Sox's, but the fans' frustration is the result of decades of mediocrity amid Nutting's refusal to spend money on team payroll or hire competent front office staff.

White Sox rumors should put pressure on Bob Nutting to sell Pirates

The Pirates may not have finished the season with 121 losses, but in many ways, it feels like they did. Sure, we got to bear witness to Paul Skenes' debut season, making it one of the most exciting times to be a Pirates fan in recent memory; but that excitement quickly turned to anger and frustration toward team ownership and management for wasting a year of a generational talent by failing to put a good team around him.

Seasoned Pirates fans already know how this story will end. We are already bracing for Skenes to eventually – and rightfully – escape from the clutches of this laughably unserious organization as soon as he is able.

Nutting should take a page out of Reinsdorf's book and consider selling the team. He has bled the Pirates fanbase dry with his empty promises and miserly ways. Clearly, he doesn't care about winning baseball games, but team ownership is a results-driven business. At least, it should be.

If you build it, they will come – but Nutting has dismantled this organization, stone by stone. He needs to sell it to someone who cares enough to rebuild it again.

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