Pittsburgh Pirates To Be Terrible Again In 2022: Everyone

Pittsburgh PA

06 April, 2022

11:15 AM

Description

PITTSBURGH, PA — At least the ballpark is nice. PNC Park has received some significant upgrades this off-season. The team that plays there? Not so much. The Pirates universally are regarded as one of baseball's worst teams. For a franchise that won its last World Series in 1979, that's pretty much par for the course. The Pirates' penny-pinching owner, Bob Nutting, 60,has been the team's majority owner since 2008. In those 14 years, the Pirates have yet to win so much as a division championship. Nutting recently agreed to a new collective bargaining agreement that virtually guarantees the Bucs will be non-competitive in future years. The Pirates open the season Thursday against the Cardinals in St. Louis in what widely is thought to be an upcoming year of utter futility and a last-place division finish yet again. Some predictions: Sporting News: 66-96, 5th place. Chances of winning the division: 0.1 percent. "The Pirates remain fully in rebuild mode, but the young talent in the system is starting to reach the big leagues." Bleacher Report: 62-100, 5th place. "This is a season far more centered around developing and evaluating young talent. The goal isn't so much to win a lot of games but rather to find out who can contribute toward that cause in the near future." Sportsnaut: 65-97, 5th place: "Considering the Cincinnati Reds are shopping their starting pitchers and trimming payroll, they belong in the "ignore" tier for the 2022 season. They'll be better than the Pittsburgh Pirates, but at least we can say we like the outlook for Pittsburgh's future." CBS Sports: Current ranking, 30th of 30 teams. "Remember how the players wanted to fight against service-time manipulation here in the new collective bargaining agreement? Watch what happens with Oneil Cruz this season, just in case anyone was under the misconception the players won anything in this specific battle." FanGraphs: 69-93, 5th place. Not much more needs to be said. Be the first to know what's happening in your community and region. With a free Patch subscription, you'll always be up to date on local and state news: https://patch.com/subscribe.