Pirates Manager Says Nutting Wants Baseball In Pittsburgh This Summer

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PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) - Pirates Manager Derek Shelton says the Pirates organization “from the top down” wants to play baseball this summer.

Shelton joined Cook and Joe on 93.7 The Fan on Wednesday afternoon for his weekly segment and says he spoke with owner Bob Nutting Wednesday morning and his mindset, “is to get back on the field and excited to get back on the field.”

A source told Fan Pirates Insider Jason Mackey of the Post-Gazette that Nutting “unequivocally wants to play baseball his year, period.”

From one source: "[Nutting> unequivocally wants to play baseball this year. Period." Again, good on Pirates ownership here. The fans deserve it. They also deserve an improvement from 69 wins, obviously.

— Jason Mackey (@JMackeyPG) June 17, 2020

While Shelton admits there is a deadline to when the season can start, he remains optimistic.

“I think we still have time, I think that’s the one thing . . . it’s a little unfortunate that we’re in mid-June and we haven’t started backup Spring Training wise but I think we still have time to get in the games we need to get in,” said Shelton.

Shelton adds that the conversations he has been having with General Manager Ben Cherington have been about looking forward to the season and playing.

“He has definitely helped my anxiety of getting ready to start,”

“Our group and our staff and our players and our baseball ops group want to play and I think that in the Pirates situation, from the top down, we want to play baseball.

But while Shelton and the rest of the club may be ready to play, there is now doubt a season could even happen.

Days after he said there would be a 2020 Major League season, Commissioner Rob Manfred casted doubt of that possibility saying on ESPN that he’s,  "not confident" there will be a 2020 season and that he thinks "there's real risk" so long as the negotiations between the MLB and the union continue to fail to bring about any positive change.
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