Pirates CEO Travis Williams: Owner Bob Nutting Won’t Sell the Team Despite Fan Chants

Timothy Rapp@@TRappaRTFeatured Columnist IVJanuary 19, 2025

Justin K. Aller/Getty Images

Pittsburgh Pirates CEO Travis Williams said Saturday that owner Bob Nutting won’t be selling the organization during the team’s offseason fan fest, despite some “Sell the team!” chants from fans at the event.

“To answer your immediate question or what you said earlier, Bob’s not going to sell the team,” Williams said, per Noah Hiles of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “He cares about Pittsburgh, cares about winning, cares about us putting a winning product on the field and we’re working towards that every day.”

Nutting wasn’t in attendance during the Q&A where the chants were heard, another point of frustration for Pirates’ fans.

But the main issue in Pittsburgh is that the team hasn’t had a winning season since 2015, which was also its last postseason appearance. And the Pirates haven’t won a playoff series since 2013, which is the only series the franchise has won since winning the World Series back in 1979.

Since Willie Stargell led the Pirates to glory last year, the team has made just six playoff appearances in 44 seasons, a startling streak of futility. Nutting has been at the helm since 2007, with just three winning seasons and three playoff appearances in 17 years.

“I’ve been in sports a long time, different sports, different organizations,” Williams told fans. “One thing I’ve learned long ago is that passion for your team turns into frustration whenever you’re not winning. It’s just a reality. It happens whenever it’s in Pittsburgh. It happens in other cities. We see that all the time. We know that there is frustration, frustration because we’re not winning with expectations of winning. But at the end of the day, that’s not due to a lack of commitment to want to win.”

Pirates’ fans may seriously question that last statement. In 2024, the team had the second-lowest payroll in the sport at $84 million. Only the Oakland Athletics spent less, a paltry $62.1 million. The highest the Pirates have ranked in payroll dating back to 2011 was in 2016, when they ranked 21st out of 30 teams with a payroll of $99.5 million. Four teams had a payroll of over $200 million that season.

The Pirates have been bottom-five in payroll in 11 out of the last 14 seasons. They are projected to continue the trend in 2025, with a payroll currently sitting at $64.2 million.