Perrotto: Would Bob Nutting Consider a Pirates’ Shakeup?

It is becoming increasingly obvious that Bob Nutting has to make some tough decisions.

Whether the Pittsburgh Pirates owner should make them now or wait until the season ends can be debated, what isn’t debatable is that Nutting must figure out if he still believes general manager Ben Cherington and manager Derek Shelton can build the Pirates into a playoff-caliber team.

The Pirates hit rock bottom on Wednesday at PNC Park. After leading 10-3 in the seventh, they lost to the Chicago Cubs 14-10 and were swept in the three-game series.

The Pirates have played a lot of ugly baseball over the last decade. However, the sweep ranks up there – down there? – with the very worst of the Buccos’ efforts in the past five decades.

The Pirates started their three best pitchers in Mitch Keller, Jared Jones and Paul Skenes. Yet the Cubs scored 41 runs in the series.

It is not as if the Cubs have an offensive juggernaut. They are 14^th among the 30 MLB teams in runs scored a game.

Still, the Cubs embarrassed the Pirates. It was so bad that even Shelton was upset after Wednesday’s loss.

Nobody is more tolerant of bad baseball than Shelton. He always finds the positive in every poor performance. However, Shelton finally had enough of it on Wednesday and let his frustration show in his post-game press conference.

The question is if Nutting, the Pirates’ owner, has also had enough.

The Pirates began the month in contention for a postseason berth. They are ending it as a laughingstock, a familiar role for the franchise even before Nutting pushed Kevin McClatchy out as majority owner.

The Pirates were just 2.5 games out of a playoff spot when they opened a six-game homestand on Aug. 2 against the Arizona Diamondbacks and San Diego Padres – two teams ahead of them in National League wild-card standings.

The Pirates lost five of six games in a stretch that mushroomed into a 10-game losing streak and eventually a 7-18 record in August.

The Pirates are now 11 games behind in the chase for the third and final NL wild card. At 62-71, they must improbably win 20 of their last 29 games to finish above .500.

Nutting must decide if Cherington and Shelton should take the fall for the big collapse.

Nutting did not allow Cherington to add significantly to the payroll at the July 30 trade deadline. Thus, the Pirates didn’t acquire the type of players they needed to make a legitimate playoff push.

Of course, there is no guarantee that Cherington would have made the right moves if given financial freedom. His track record with trades during his five seasons on the job has been spotty.

Shelton’s record is more definable as his teams have gone 280-399 over five seasons. In fairness, Shelton has been handed some bad rosters.

That the Pirates choked while playing meaningful late-season games for the first time in Shelton’s tenure is telling. Then there is the weird clubhouse dynamic where there is no vibe, good or bad.

Will Nutting pull the trigger on a potential shakeup? My gut instincts tell me no.

Nutting loves yes men in all his business ventures and is loyal to his executives and managers who don’t create waves. It is almost comical at times the length Pirates’ employees will go to act like everything is great with a franchise that has had losing records in 27 of the last 31 seasons.

Nobody spins things more positively than Cherington and Shelton – at least until Wednesday – and why I think their jobs are safe for at least one more year.