You read that right. Two.

Whether you’re a fan of the organization, a fan of the sport or just someone who turns on a game once playoffs begin, that stat may not surprise you.

Or maybe it does, we won’t hold it against you.

It’s a jarring stat, including the stat that within those 32 years, the Pirates have only made the playoffs three times – with two of those being in single elimination series’.

Perhaps that’s why they’re called the Pirates. To use an eye patch to cover the permanent black eye on a once proud franchise.

That doubt has seeped into the Pirates locker room, and it’s getting to the point where they don’t care what gets out.

When then-manager Derek Shelton was fired in May, it didn’t come off as a surprise to most of the players. They had already entered this season with low expectations and felt that Shelton’s presence was weighing the team down rather than lifting them up.

According to Noah Hiles of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Shelton had a lot of say in where the organization was going – from the obvious play on the field to the hiring process of baseball operations positions.

And with this season being the final year of his contract, there was immense pressure on Shelton to finally make this ball club into a winning team after five seasons of finishing below .500.

But because of that, he started to make players feel like anytime something went wrong, he refused to look in the mirror.

“It was always someone else’s fault. Never his,” one anonymous player told Hiles.

In early May, another player sent a direct message to ownership and the front office:

“People think we’re underachieving,” one player said in early May. “Look around here. We’re playing to our potential. This is what $90 million gets you. Some of the teams we play aren’t even trying to win. They’re rebuilding but still have a higher payroll than us. What do you think that tells us?”

And not only that, the biggest dagger to the heart was what one player said about how the Pirates are run.

“We laugh at all of this [expletive] behind closed doors... It’s just a bad organization.”

That is all you need to hear.

Players are obviously affected by it the most since they’re the ones having to lose day in and day out, but a lot of it also lies on the fans. A collective group who cares about their team, but why would they want to show up and support a team that doesn’t reciprocate?

It’s also a terrible look for the Pirates’ looking to keep star pitcher Paul Skenes.

Skenes, who will likely win the Cy Young this season, has said all the right things about staying on board with the Pirates – despite many teams asking about him.

It’s clear he’s Pittsburgh’s most important piece to build a winner, but it’s hard to build a winner when the organization doesn’t want to take the next step.

And if it’s the same song and dance, Skenes will know just how the franchise feels. After the season, he told reporters:

“This is a wasted year if we don’t learn what we need to do.”

Which should tell you a lot. 

If the Pirates continue to want to have their cake and to eat it too by not spending the right amount of resources, they’re going to lose their best player since Barry Bonds.