Pirates fire GM Neal Huntington, shake front office again

PITTSBURGH (AP) — The Pittsburgh Pirates' front-office overhaul is complete. The team fired general manager Neal Huntington on Monday, the third high-profile dismissal following a last-place finish in the NL Central.

Pittsburgh parted with manager Clint Hurdle on the final day of the regular season. Team president Frank Coonelly stepped away last week and will be replaced by former Pittsburgh Penguins executive Travis Williams. Kevan Graves will serve as interim general manager while the club begins the search for Huntington's full-time replacement.

Huntington arrived in Pittsburgh in 2007 and oversaw a franchise-wide makeover in which the club emerged from two decades of losing to reach the playoffs three straight times from 2013-15. The team began to slide out of contention in 2016 and has finished under .500 in three of the last four seasons. Huntington and Hurdle signed four-year contract extensions in 2017 saying they were confident the team had the right plan to stay competitive in one of baseball's toughest divisions.

Now they're both out of work following a stunning second-half collapse in which Pittsburgh finished 69-93 amid a series of on-the-field and off-the-field issues, including the arrest of All-Star closer Felipe Vazquez on felony charges related to a sexual relationship with an underage girl.

Pirates chairman Bob Nutting appeared to give Huntington a vote of confidence when the team dismissed Hurdle, saying on Sept. 29 he strongly believed "Huntington and the leadership team that he has assembled are the right people to continue to lead our baseball operations department."

After what he called a "thorough review," Nutting changed course. Coonelly walked away last week, saying he felt new voices were necessary for the franchise to move forward. Nutting stressed that Huntington's dozen years in...

source https://www.chron.com/sports/article/Pirates-fire-general-manager-Neal-Huntington-14567868.php