Pittsburgh Pirates Player Roasts Organization For Not Trying To Win

The Pittsburgh Pirates are the poster child for how little some owners care about their customers. And make no mistake, fans are customers. 

Through organizational incompetence and sheer luck, the Pirates were put in position to draft pitcher Paul Skenes with the first overall pick in the 2023 Major League Baseball draft. Skenes almost immediately became a generational superstar, winning the 2024 NL Rookie of the Year award. He then repeated that season almost immediately in 2025, putting himself in position to be the runaway favorite to win the NL Cy Young Award. 

A team and franchise that takes itself seriously would, recognizing that it needed help on offense, invest money in the free agency market to build around their new ace. Instead, they signed an aging Andrew McCutchen, Adam Frazier, Tommy Pham and some relievers. That's it. That's how they showed their fans they were serious about competing. 

Predictably, it didn't work. The Pirates finished 71-91, dead last in the NL Central. Fans are once again frustrated and disappointed, blaming ownership for its disinterest. Turns out, the players agree with them.

Jun 19, 2025; Detroit, Michigan, USA;  Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes (30) pitches in the first inning against the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-Imagn Images

Pirates Players Know Organization Doesn't Care

In a post-mortem on the Pirates season from The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, one unidentified player told the media outlet they know exactly what's happening. 

"People think we're underachieving," the player reportedly said to the Post-Gazette in May. "Look around here. We're playing to our potential. This is what $90 million gets you."

"Some of the teams we play aren't even trying to win. They're rebuilding but still have a higher payroll than us," that same player later said. "What do you think that tells us?"

There you have it. Even the players know that owner Bob Nutting simply doesn't care about competing. And that's the real problem with the distribution of payrolls in Major League Baseball. Yes, the Dodgers make a lot more money than the Pirates. As do the Mets, Yankees or the Cubs. 

But the San Diego Padres also play in a small market, and they routinely run payrolls that are twice that of the Pirates. If not more. They saw an opportunity, with Fernando Tatis Jr. demonstrating that he could be a franchise icon, to build around him. And so they did. Now the Padres sell out most of their home games, ranking second in per game average attendance.

Pittsburgh has the pitching staff and the prospects to become a force in a division that's frequently up for grabs. Instead, they're going to keep spending $90 million, content to let Skenes waste the first few years of his career in obscurity before he signs with a team that takes itself seriously. And even his teammates know it.