Tim Benz: Most pressing questions that need to be asked of Pirates’ Bob Nutting

The belief within the Pittsburgh media is that the Pirates will have a press conference of some sort Monday to introduce Travis Williams as the team’s new president.

If that happens, it is also anticipated that owner Bob Nutting may be on hand to answer questions.

That’s rare.

If this phenomenon should occur, here are the top three questions that need to be asked of Nutting relating to his decision to part ways with Frank Coonelly and replace him with Williams.

“What is Travis’ job exactly?”

It’s a simple question with a complicated enough answer that Nutting could intentionally obscure a direct response.

Hopefully Nutting’s answer is something along the lines of:

“Travis’ job is to increase income for the team through corporate contracts and future broadcast and advertising agreements. He’s entrusted with reconnecting the fan base’s tattered trust with this team. He’ll be an advocate for small market franchises at the bargaining table when the CBA negotiations come around and whenever league-wide business matters need to be approved.

He’ll also be tasked with finding revenue streams so I can soak up more dollars to line my pockets that I’ll never reinvest into the Major League product or payroll.

Oops. Did I say that last part out loud?”

Actually, I hope the vast majority of that is true. And I hope that absent from his answer is anything about Williams making baseball decisions.

That should be the job of the general manager.

Whoever that may end up being. Neal Huntington or someone replacing Neal Huntington.

More on that later.

The only expectation that I have from the team president when it comes to baseball-related matters is setting the budget.

And in the case of the Pirates, maybe having a team president that’s willing to advocate for expansion of that budget, even if the owner balks at first.

“Will you give Williams more money for him to allocate toward on-field baseball-related matters?”

This goes for everything. Trades. Free agency. Player retention.

If the answer to this question is anything besides “Yes. Significantly,” then there is no reason for the press conference to continue. The cameramen should pack up their gear and head across the parking lot for Steelers coverage at Heinz Field.

Williams can juice every corporate connection he has from his Penguins days. He can coax every marketing plan out of his head that he may have had that worked uptown at the rink.

But if more money isn’t designated for payroll of the roster, none of it will matter.

The Penguins did a great job of selling their product while Williams was with the front office. No doubt.

It just so happens that the product being sold was a few future Hall of Famers with generational talent.

The Pirates don’t have that and never will, unless the business strategy changes. Williams needs to map out some sort of strategy that will allow Nutting to feel comfortable enough to pour more cash into the roster at PNC Park.

“Why did you fire Neal Huntngton when you did?”

When this story originally posted this morning, the third question was, “Is the plan for Travis Williams to keep Neal Huntington as the team’s general manager?”

Well, I guess we know the answer to that question now.

It’s “no.” Neal Huntington is out as the Buccos’ GM.

The sequence of events is really strange to me. Why not announce all three firings at once instead of this staggered purge?

It’s almost as if Nutting didn’t want to be out-front as the lone face of the team for any given period of time.

So — in his mind — it comes off as if he wanted Huntington to do the dirty work of firing Clint Hurdle. Then wait until Williams is on board before firing Huntington, to make it look like it was the new guy’s call.

Also, it seems to me a mighty task to have a non-baseball guy jump in with both feet to make a very important general manager hire with limited exposure to the marketplace.

At this point, I’m wondering if all the pierogis are safe. Who is the first one to go there? Cheese Chester? Oliver Onion?

Nah. I noticed Potato Pete’s defensive zone rating was way off this year. It’s probably him.