Pat McAfee Calls for New Pirates Ownership
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PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Pirates are off to a terrible start to their 2025 season, putting them amongst the worst teams in baseball.
The Pirates are 1-4 so far, but their opening series with the Miami Marlins at LoanDepot Park in Miami stood out from many
Pittsburgh lost three of their four games on walk-offs, 5-4 on both March 27 on Opening Day and then March 29 in 12 innings, plus 3-2 on March 30. Their only win came 4-3 on March 28.
All three of those defeats came after the Pirates blew leads thanks to poor defense, hitting and bullpen performances. They almost blew a lead in their sole win, but managed to hold on for the victory.
The Pirates are the first MLB team to lose their first three games on a walk-off since they did it back in 1924, 101 years ago.
Pittsburgh's poor start served as a topic of discussion on the latest Pat McAfee Show and the host weighed in on his hometown team's continual struggles.
"Yeah hopefully. Maybe that's a sign that they should sell the team," McAfee said. "Maybe that's the baseball gods saying, "Hey, excuse me. You need a little different going on. You've been walked off every game thus far," and obviously Paul Skenes is the future of baseball. Happy that the Buccos are back in record-breaking conversations, even if it's not great."
The Pittsburgh Pirates were walked off three times this weekend..
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) March 31, 2025
Maybe that's a sign they should sell the team#PMSLive pic.twitter.com/UqcZFtX6tf
The Pirates have struggled greatly for more than 30 years, with many rebuilds and little success for a fan base desperate for it.
Pittsburgh endured the longest consecutive streak of seasons below .500 from 1993-2012, 20 seasons long. They also have had just four winning seasons during that time as well, with an NLDS appearance in 2013 and Wild Card appearances in 2014 and 2015.
Bob Nutting has owned the Pirates since 2007 and the franchise holds a 1284-1533 win-loss record (.455) in his 19th season.
The Pirates had a projected Opening Day payroll of $89,975,500, per Cot's Contracts, which is $20 million lower than the next divisional opponent in the National League Central in the Milwaukee Brewers, at $109,141,136.
It was also the fourth lowest in baseball, with only the Marlins at $68.9 million, Chicago White Sox at $74 million, the Athletics at 78.2 million and the Tampa Bay Rays at $82.9 million ranking lower than the Pirates.
Dejan Kovacevic of DK Pittsburgh Sports released a report that found that the Pirates had a loss of $2.2 million, or the difference between operating revenues and expenses.
McAfee isn't the first national media member that called out the Pirates ownership, with Ken Rosenthal on the Foul Territory podcast also suggesting they sell the team to someone else.
Dominic writes for Pittsburgh Pirates On SI, Pittsburgh Panthers Pn SI and also, Pittsburgh Steelers On SI. A Pittsburgh native, Dominic grew up watching Pittsburgh Sports and wrote for The Pitt News as an undergraduate at the University of Pittsburgh, covering Pitt Athletics. He would write for Pittsburgh Sports Now after college and has years of experience covering sports across Pittsburgh.