Bob Nutting made the right moves in the end.
There was really no justification for the Pirates to keep anyone in the current front office, unless there were some massive changes about to be implemented. And after Bob Nutting originally announced that Neal Huntington would remain with the team, there didn’t appear to be any of those big changes coming as far as how the Pirates operated.
So now the Pirates are in a good position as far as restarting and having a better chance to contend in today’s MLB. They can try to get a GM and development team that are more in line with the current way of trying to contend.
The big downside here is that they are searching for a General Manager at the same time that every other General Manager is starting to prep for their offseason, and while every other team without a GM is finishing their search.
That will set the Pirates back, because they can’t rush the GM search. Getting a normal start on the offseason will only help the 2020 team, and that only matters if they decide to go for it in 2020. If they decide for a rebuild, then getting the right GM is massively important to the future of this organization.
I’m not sure the Pirates should be going for it right now, as much as that probably annoys Pirates fans to see more losing in the future. The truth is that more losing is in the future with this current team, unless some drastic changes are made immediately. The organization would be better off going for a rebuild, and hoping that only leads to 1-2 years of losing before the Pirates are ready to actually start contending.
Either way, it’s going to be an interesting offseason. The downside is that it should be about to start, but the Pirates are behind on their GM search by a month, which means their future path will be delayed. That’s not good, but it can only be made worse if they try to rush the search and get the wrong guy.
SONG OF THE DAY
DAILY QUIZ
THIS DATE IN PIRATES HISTORY
By John Dreker
Six former Pittsburgh Pirates born on this date, plus a manager to mention. Starting with the most recent first and working our way back.
Ian Snell, pitcher for the 2004-09 Pirates. Went 33-46, 4.75 in 116 starts and 12 relief appearances with the Pirates. His best year was in 2007 when he had a 9-12, 3.76 ERA in 208 innings, though the previous season he won 14 games with an ERA that was nearly a full run higher. Snell went 0-5, 6.41 for the 2010 Seattle Mariners, before finishing his career in the minors.
Houston Jimenez, infielder for the 1987 Pirates. He lasted just five games in Pittsburgh, going 0-for-6 with a walk, while starting once at shortstop. He played parts of four seasons in the majors, though 108 of his 158 games came with the 1984 Minnesota Twins.
Lee Tunnel, pitcher for the 1982-85 Pirates. Went 11-6, 3.65 in 177.2 innings during his first full season in the majors in 1983, finishing ninth in the Rookie of the Year voting. That would be his best season. He finished 17-24, 4.06 in 57 starts and 33 relief appearances for the Pirates in four seasons. His only other big league experience was with the 1987 St Louis Cardinals and 1989 Minnesota Twins. Tunnel was a second round draft pick in 1981, who made it to the majors 15 months later.
Bobby Bragan, manager for the 1956-57 Pirates. He had a 102-155 record at the helm of the Pirates before being replaced mid-season in 1957 by Danny Murtaugh. Bragan managed a total of seven seasons in the majors and also had a seven-year career as a player, while missing two years due to WWII.
Tony Ordenana, shortstop for the 1943 Pirates. Cuban-born player who played 11 seasons of pro ball, though just one of those games came while in the majors. In the final game of the 1943 season, he went 2-for-4 and drove in three runs, then never played in the majors again.
Lefty Wilkie, pitcher for the 1941-42 and 1946 Pirates. He spent his entire big league career with the Pirates, missing 1943-45 due to WWII. Wilkie went 8-11, 4.59 in 194 innings, with most of those stats coming before he missed time. He gave up nine runs over seven outings and 7.2 innings after returning from WWII, then spent the next 5 1/2 seasons in the minors.
Pete Conway, pitcher for the 1889 Alleghenys. He pitched for four teams over a five-year career that ended at 22 years old due to injury. Conway joined Pittsburgh after going 30-14, 2.26 in 45 starts for the Detroit Wolverines, an NL team at the time. He won his first two starts with the Alleghenys, then injured his arm in his third game, which ultimately ended his career. Pittsburgh signed him for two years, $7,000 total, but he only got paid a small portion of that amount. The team suspended him for being out of shape, even though his issue was injury related.
