One thing I always note about the Twins is that, regardless of how bad things might seem, it isn't as bad as it could get. The Twins are playing poorly, they have suffered injuries, and they have an ownership group with cash flow issues and a reluctance to spend money. But it isn't as bad as it could be! No, that title belongs to the Pirates.
Pittsburgh is a fantastic sports town, willing to support their teams with fans in stands and money for stadiums. They play in a central division that is every bit as wide open as the American League is, at least for the past few years. They develop talented players, draft fairly well, and get rid of all that talent as soon as they start making any money.
The Pirates have one of the lowest payrolls in baseball, higher only than the Rays and A's, currently playing in Minor League stadiums, the White Sox, who are undergoing a massive overhaul and rebuild and the Marlins who, frankly, are similar to the Pirates, but different. Miami isn't as big a sports town because, well, beaches, but Pittsburgh is. The Pirates stand out like a sore, underfunded thumb.
And some might complain about market size for Pittsburgh as it relates to the rest of baseball, and yes, Pittsburgh is a down on it's luck town that is on the smaller end of baseball cities, however the city itself s larger than Milwaukee, Cleveland and Kansas City, none of the teams that were listed as having payroll problems above. I'm not saying that the Pirates should be at the top of the payroll tables, but I am saying that they should at least be in line with other teams, and sustain payroll when they start to get better, right?
For as much grousing as Minnesota has rightfully had about the Pohlads over the year, there is no question that Bob Nutting, owner of the Pirates is worse. Instead of a rising team looking to build around Paul Skenes, who is now in his second year, people are already beginning speculate on the Pirates trading him before he reaches even into arbitration. They have talent incoming, a depressed payroll, and instead of augmenting the roster, they are looking to cut costs even further.
The Twins are frustrating because of their inability to seize opportunities. The Pirates under Nutter are indifferent to whether the opportunities come. The Pohlads have proven to have bad luck in their last two TV deals (before the RSN model really exploded, and then immediately after it popped) and have debt and cash flow issues as a result. Nutting made a business decision to not fund his team.
The Pohlads are getting out, sooner or later. I hope Nutting does soon too.