Nutting became the sixth principal owner in Pirates history on January 12, 2007. He has served as chairman of the board and represented his family's interest in the club since 2002. The highlight of Nutting's tenure as owner of the Pirates to date has been the three-year period from 2013 to 2015 when Pittsburgh compiled a 280–206 record (.576 winning percentage). It was the second-best mark in Major League Baseball during that period behind only N.L. Central Division rival St. Louis (287–199). The Pirates captured an N.L. Wild Card spot each of those three seasons. In 2013, they compiled a 94–68 mark and defeated Cincinnati in the Wild Card Game before losing to St. Louis in the Division Series, three games to two. Pittsburgh went 88–74 and 98–64 during the regular season in 2014 and 2015, but lost to San Francisco and Chicago respectively in the Wild Card Game. The Pirates hosted all three of those Wild Card contests at
PNC Park. After the Pirates' 2013 season, Nutting was named Newsmaker of the Year by the
Pittsburgh Business Times. Nutting is also chairman of the Pirates' philanthropic arm, Pirates Charities, which constructs baseball and softball fields for youth in the Pittsburgh region and Bradenton, Florida, through its Miracle League and Fields for Kids programs. Pirates Charities also supports military families and veterans as well as those who are battling cancer. earning the nickname "Bottom-Line Bob". Despite Nutting being the 10th richest owner in MLB, Following McClatchy turning away
Dallas Mavericks owner and
Mt. Lebanon native
Mark Cuban from buying the team around the time the Nutting family was becoming majority owners, Nutting has also turned down bids by
Pittsburgh Penguins owners
Mario Lemieux &
Ron Burkle, as well as
Pittsburgh Steelers minority owner
Thomas Tull, insisting that the team isn't for sale. He has been the subject of harsh criticism due to trades the team made in the 2017–2018 offseason, moving pitcher
Gerrit Cole to the
Houston Astros, and centerfielder
Andrew McCutchen to the
San Francisco Giants in an apparent
fire sale. Following the two trades, Pirates fans launched a petition drive on
Change.org demanding Nutting sell the team to someone who spend what was necessary to be competitive. The McCutchen trade did net pitcher
Kyle Crick and outfielder
Bryan Reynolds. Crick made 116 appearances as a late-inning reliever for the Pirates in 2018 and 2019, and Reynolds finished 7th in the N.L. batting race with a .314 mark as a rookie in 2019. The Pirates' trades, along with allegations of similar "salary dumps" by the
Miami Marlins, led to the
Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) to accuse both teams of failing to use
revenue sharing funds to improve the team's on-field performance, as required in the
collective bargaining agreement. On February 23, 2018, MLBPA filed a formal grievance with MLB against the Pirates, Marlins,
Oakland Athletics, and
Tampa Bay Rays over the teams misuse of revenue sharing funds. MLB responded that the claims had "no merit." The grievance did not result in a hearing. Miami (63–98) was the only team named in the grievance to post a losing record in 2018. Oakland went 97–65 and captured an A.L. Wild Card spot, while Tampa Bay (90–72) and Pittsburgh (82–79) finished above .500. On February 1, 2018, it was reported by the
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that the Weirton Medical Center, a major advertiser for three of Nutting's papers (
Weirton Daily Times in
Weirton, West Virginia,
Herald-Star in
Steubenville, Ohio, and
The Review in
East Liverpool, Ohio), were pulling its ads from the papers over "the failure of the Pirates to craft a deal to keep Andrew McCutchen a Pirate." On April 10, 2022, two days before the Pirates
home opener, the
Post-Gazette published a report based on Pirates financial data (publicly available due to the team's lease with
Allegheny County) that showed the team's player payroll was strictly tied to ticket sales and
concession stand revenue. The newspaper’s investigation found that all TV revenue, MLB
revenue sharing, and profits from concession sales after payroll was kept as net profits for Nutting. This story was published as the Pirates had the fourth-lowest payroll in MLB at the start of the
2022 season, less than half of their
National League Central rival, the
Cincinnati Reds—whose fans criticized owner
Bob Castellini for cutting payroll in 2022. That prompted longtime sports talk show host
Mark Madden to suggest that the
Sports & Exhibition Authority of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County to force Nutting to spend to the MLB average as a condition of renewing the team's lease with PNC Park in 2030. On August 3, 2022, a fan took a photo with Nutting wearing a shirt (made and sold by the website of Pittsburgh native
Pat McAfee) with the words "Sell The Team", which quickly went viral and was popular with many Pirates fans who shared his sentiments. As of , the Pirates have not made the playoffs since 2015, the
second-longest drought in MLB, and finished either 4th or 5th in the division each of the last eight years. ==Ogden Newspapers, Inc.==