Bob Nutting hasn't had the sunniest of springs.

The baseball team he owns is off to a 12-26 start, the manager was just fired, the general manager should've been fired, off-the-field fare has dominated local headlines for all the wrong reasons, and, oh, by the way, fans are routinely chanting 'SELL! THE! TEAM!' at the first sign of anything amiss at PNC Park.

I spent nearly an hour with the man -- just me and him -- before the Pirates' game vs. the Braves tonight, and he shared thoughts on an array of subjects, which I'll twin below with other information I was able to obtain over the afternoon in the interest of serving it all up in one swing:

• I began by asking about Derek Shelton's firing yesterday, and he replied, “First, I do wanna make sure that I say how much I appreciate what Derek did because he's a good baseball man, he tried hard in Pittsburgh and he contributed significantly, in particularly the early years as we needed it and improved." At which point the tone shifted: "That being said, it was clear to everyone — to every fan, to Ben Cherington, to me — that we needed to make a change. We needed to make a change to be fair to this team, because we still believe that this team can play better than it has in 2025. We clearly have underperformed what we needed to do, and I think Donnie Kelly is gonna give us the best chance to do that.

• I shifted toward Cherington, the GM whose tenure matched Shelton's until this day, and Nutting turned it back, with a smile, to Kelly: “So, I love Donnie. I think that he's been, in terms of a great person at the right time, I really do want to just take a minute to say how long I've known him and how much I like him. He's such a good human being, he's such a good Pittsburgher and deserves to have the seat that he's in. Irrespective of timing, he's the right guy to lead this team forward. He's gonna be an empathetic leader, he cares about his players, he cares about Pittsburgh. I love Donnie. I've known him for a long, long time, and I love this guy."

• I very much got the general sense from people here who matter that Kelly's fire, his fight would be welcome. As in a welcome departure. As in, it'd been quite some time since there'd been that sense from Shelton, and not nearly enough this season.

• As I'd reported yesterday, Nutting ordered the firing of Shelton.

• Clubhouse leadership's being challenged, and not just at the managerial level. Someone's got to stand up, speak up, whatever it takes. And that someone's got to be, for a bunch of reasons, as I had confirmed, Paul Skenes. It won't come more naturally for anyone else.

• So, why's Cherington still here? I asked that of Nutting in exactly those terms: “I really believe that making the change with Shelty was important now because we have to focus on 2025. Right now, this year, I have a real sense of urgency, and I, and we collectively, need to fix this. Ben knows that, every coach knows that, the players know that. I don't think making broader, wholesale changes to the organization is the right way to fix 2025.”

• I didn't really get that, so I pressed. Because that's not exactly some electric endorsement of Cherington's work unto itself. And he'd elaborate that he's eager to see real improvement within 2025, a real step forward, regardless of the team's record now. And that, if there's a GM change, then there's almost invariably a clamoring from candidates to do everything their way. Top to bottom. Just as it was with Cherington. Just as it was with Neal Huntington.

• Nutting's NOT interested in a rebuild, and that's because of Skenes and the rest of the starting pitching at hand. Like, at all. I'd never heard him or anyone inside the organization say that previously.

• There's a very direct line of communication between Nutting and Skenes. The kid's very much the owner's focus now and into the future. I hadn't been aware of that, either.

• Nutting again wouldn't confirm/deny anything related to our recent special report illustrating that the Pirates lost money in 2024, but I was told there's a chance that'll become known through other, official, indisputable means before long. Bottom line: They lost money in 2024, and they're currently carrying more debt than at any point in the Nutting tenure.

• No owner's permitted by Major League Baseball to talk in any detail about the labor agreement that expires after the 2026 season or what's expected to follow. That means no talking about a salary cap system. Nutting's no exception. But, as I've previously reported multiple times, he's in touch with Rob Manfred, with other owners in other markets, large and small, and it goes well beyond that. All of that's still the case. And because of that, he sees himself positioned better than anyone from the Pittsburgh perspective to help make that happen.

• I feel like typing this one in all-caps, based on everything I know from multiple sources: He's very much in favor of a system that creates better economic balance and, taking that further, he sees that as a top priority -- if not the top priority -- for the franchise.

• No, he's not selling.

• No, the team's not moving, either. It's stupid to ever bring this up, as I'm often repeating, but since it'll occasionally poke through the public landscape, the franchise's priority in this regard is to do everything it can to sustain PNC Park deep into the future, which would mean, of course, renewing its lease with the city's Sports and Exhibition Authority.

• My own observation: I've seen Nutting like this before, where he's on ... I don't want to call it a warpath, but where he's intensely engaged, bouncing about the building, having meeting after meeting and pushing buttons in all directions. Each time, it'd result in wholesale change.

He's patient. Too patient at times, even some of his ardent admirers will admit. But when he gets ticked off ... he's like this.

As such, this much resonated with me more than anything: He doesn't want to wait for another spring training or the subsequent summer to see palpable progress.

• Wait, one more: Anyone who'd have sat with us in this session would've had a slew of myths dispelled within about six minutes. The scope of the knowledge. The specificity of what he'd lay out. The nature of his interaction. The passion with which he'd address particular topics related to the Pirates, their history, being the responsible 'steward' of that ... it goes on.

I'm not asking anyone to believe or buy. That's up to each individual. Just sharing. It's not a side everyone gets to see.