Perrotto: This 76-86 Season Ends With a Different Vibe for Pirates

The Pittsburgh Pirates finished the 2024 season with the same record they had in 2023. However, the feeling about the two seasons is different.

Optimism surrounded the Pirates at this time last year. Their 76-86 record was a 14-win improvement over 2022, and an 18-12 finish seemed to signal that better days were ahead.

The Pirates also went 76-86 this year after losing to the Yankees 6-4 on Sunday at Yankee Stadium in their season finale to lose 32 of their last 52 games.. That represented an improvement of zero wins over last season as the Pirates finished in last place in the National League Central for the fourth time in six years.

While the record stayed the same, the vibe is different heading into this offseason.

It is easy to question whether the rebuild that general manager Ben Cherington and manager Derek Shelton started in 2020 is working. Five seasons in and the Pirates haven’t reached .500, a mark they have cleared just four times in the last 32 seasons.

One must wonder if owner Bob Nutting will decide to make major changes in the next few days.

Could he fire Cherington and Shelton? Could he keep Cherington and order him to fire Shelton? Could he make a big move and fire team president Travis Williams, a hockey guy who has never seemed comfortable in the baseball realm.

The last time Nutting cleaned house was in 2019, doing in the most ham-handed way possible.

Manager Clint Hurdle was informed he was fired about an hour before the start of the season’s last game and after meeting with the media. Nutting left general manager Neal Huntington hanging for a month before firing him. In between, team president Frank Coonelly was also boxed.

If Nutting decides to make changes, hopefully, he will do it more dignifiedly. Love or hate them, Cherington, Shelton and Williams are good people who don’t deserve to be potentially hung out to dry.

Whether Nutting will do anything remains to be seen. He has not publicly addressed anyone’s future and has never met with the media for a season postmortem.

The educated guess is Nutting will do nothing. In his history as a businessman, he has been slow to make changes and greatly values loyalty. Cherington, Shelton or Williams has never complained about ownership and always speak the company line.

The Pirates can then spin standing pat by pointing to the development of rookie pitchers Paul Skenes and Jared Jones giving them a solid foundation for the future. They can boast of shortstop-turned-center fielder Oneil Cruz having a 20/20 season. They can talk about left fielder Bryan Reynolds being selected to the All-Star Game.

And, of course, the Pirates can brag about having “the greatest ballpark in America” – because they never stop pushing that narrative. It is cheaper to have a ballpark built primarily with public funding than paying out of pocket for even an average MLB payroll.

The bottom line is that the Pirates did not make progress this season. They might not have regressed, but they aren’t better.

Cherington needs to improve his trade history and quit signing free agents at the tail end of their careers. The Pirates plummeted from contention immediately after Cherington’s biggest moves at the trade deadline were acquiring infielder Isiah Kiner-Falefa and right fielder Bryan De La Cruz.

Shelton needs to start holding his players to a winning standard instead of allowing stuff like Cruz to walk down the first-base line on the ground ball that ended the Chicago Cubs’ no-hitter against the Pirates earlier this month. Cruz amazingly faced no repercussions for such an egregious act.

Nutting at least needs to pretend that he cares about winning. A start would be holding himself and his management team accountable to the fans. Dozens of fans have told me that they want Nutting to show that losing at least bothers him.

If none of those things happen then nothing is going to change. And the Pirates will be a good bet to finish 76-86 again in 2025.