BRADENTON, Fla. — Bob Nutting addressed the media Wednesday with his back to the cavernous new fitness center at the Pirates spring training facility. The setting matched the session, which touched on several recent additions — a new commissioner, new rules and new initiatives aimed at ensuring the health of the game in the 21st century.
Nutting, principal owner and chairman of the Pirates, has a platform from which to help shape the direction of Major League Baseball. In January, new commissioner Rob Manfred appointed Nutting to the MLB executive council, along with seven other owners, meaning Nutting will have a voice on important issues such as pace of play, improving television broadcasts and streamlining the acquisition of international talent.
“That was a real honor,” Nutting said. “I think it shows the increasing respect for the organization throughout baseball.”
Until Manfred took office in January, baseball has not had a new head since Bud Selig became the chairman of the executive council in 1992, later to be elected commissioner in 1998. In Manfred’s first month in office, he has helped enact pace-of-play rules, discussed limiting defensive shifts and even revealed an openness to returning to a 154-game season, down from the current schedule of 162 games.
“It’s difficult to be an agent of change from inside,” Nutting said. “I think that’s part of the role the executive council’s going to play, to make sure that we’re challenging assumptions, to make sure we’re looking at fresh opportunities.”
The first change came last week with the pace-of-play rules. Nutting said the changes, which require batters to keep a foot in the box and limit the time between innings, represent only part of the initiative. MLB also wants to enliven the dead time between pitches on TV broadcasts, and Nutting has discussed the issue with Tony Petitti, MLB chief operating officer who is in charge of that project.
“Whether it’s additional information, statistics during the broadcast itself, seeing some of the sprays of where individual players and hitters have put balls, seeing how that lines up against our pitchers,” Nutting said. “There’s a lot of information that we have looked at internally that frankly can make a very, very interesting presentation as we roll it out to the fans.”
Manfred spoke in January about possibly banning defensive shifts, a move intended to increase scoring. The Pirates and other teams have used shifts to great effect in recent seasons.
“He represents 30 clubs, not the New York Yankees, not the Pittsburgh Pirates, and it’s his role to find the right balance to grow the game overall,” Nutting said.
The Pirates will open the season with a record payroll of more than $90 million, but Nutting indicated that the team will have the resources to add salary at the trade deadline if necessary. “Having that opportunity and flexibility to react, I think, has been a core to our success and something we’re going to stick with,” he said.
When Nutting addressed the team Wednesday morning, he listed two expectations — improve every day and win the division.
“When I introduced him, I wanted to make sure everybody was aware of the leadership he’s provided since he’s been here,” manager Clint Hurdle said. “He was part of the early ownership group in ’03, principal owner in ’07, and that’s really when our organization started taking traction.”
Before Nutting was named to the executive council, he served on the succession committee that selected candidates to replace Selig. He said he enjoyed serving on both, and that the perception of the Pirates has changed within the industry after the team reached the playoffs in two consecutive seasons. Hurdle offered an anecdote that added to that notion.
“We’re probably getting asked more questions about, how do you do it, what were you doing, things of that nature,” he said. “I think you take that for what it is. We are an organization that, you feel confident in our abilities. If somebody wants our playbook, we’ll give them some of our playbook. We’re just going to run the plays better.”
First Published: February 25, 2015, 4:43 p.m.