9:04pm: Jeff Banister was among those the Pirates laid off, Mackey tweets. Banister was once a player and coach in the organization, but he most recently worked as a special assistant in their front office. He’s better known around the game for his run as the Rangers’ manager from 2015-18. Banister also interviewed for the Astros’ managerial vacancy during the offseason, though that job went to Dusty Baker.
5:34pm: The Pirates are making sweeping changes in both their business operations and baseball operations departments, Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports. Upwards of 25 members of the business operations team were laid off yesterday, and as many as 15 members of the baseball ops team were let go Friday, he adds via Twitter.
Some of the employees who were cut loose were already on furlough and have now been told they won’t return. Those who were let go will keep their benefits through at least Oct. 31 and receive severance packages, per Mackey. The Athletic’s Rob Biertempfel reports (also via Twitter) that the 15 baseball ops personnel who were let go will be paid their salaries and retain their benefits through Oct. 31 as well. Names aren’t known at this point, although Biertempfel adds that scouting director Joe DelliCarri and farm director Larry Broadway remain on staff.
Broad-reaching organizational changes are common following a front-office shakeup, and that seemed particularly likely to be true in the case of the Pirates. Owner Bob Nutting cleaned house after the 2019 season — albeit in somewhat odd fashion. Manager Clint Hurdle was dismissed just days after publicly stating that he’d been assured he would return in 2020. Longtime pitching coach Ray Searage and bench coach Tom Prince were ousted, too. A search for a new skipper began, headed up by GM Neal Huntington … until Nutting fired Huntington nearly a month into the interview process.
Along the way, president Frank Coonelly and the club “mutually” agreed to part ways. Travis Williams took over as team president, Ben Cherington was hired to replace his friend and former Indians colleague, and the club ultimately settled on Twins bench coach Derek Shelton as its next manager.
The road taken to get to the end result was rather bizarre, but it was abundantly clear that Nutting felt dramatic change was necessary. That’s now trickled down into the operations department. The COVID-19 pandemic surely played a role in the mass layoffs, but substantial turnover always stood out as a possibility.
RunDMC
…Unless Nutting is somehow swept up in those changes – nutting to see here.
kreckert
Unless they get a new owner absolutely nothing will ever change. They’ll be awful for at least a generation then draft a little bit of talent and manage to sneak into the second wild card spot and get eliminated in the first round. Then they’ll refuse to pay the few good players they have, and so, after a three or four years of getting eliminated in the Wild Card game they’ll be awful for another generation. Rinse and repeat.
whyhayzee
As long as their best players wind up on the yankees it’s all good. That’s the mlb business model, have a bunch of lowly teams go through the process of identifying good players so they can be acquired by the wealthier chosen teams. Once in a while they’re allowed a glimpse at the postseason to give their fans a tiny amount of hope. It’s great. Again. America.
CursedRangers
As sad as it is to admit you’re spot on. Then on the few occasions a team signs a ‘star’ it often backfires (ex. Chris Davis) – which sets the non-major market teams back even more years.
clepto
Idiot, whyhazzee, want to score any direct pirate yankee trades? Lets go. Rattle them off, clown
User 4245925809
Before salaries grew insane.. Pirates were good every year. I remember going to ATL once on a 4th of July night game.. Candy Man vs Niekro.. Stargell hit 2 HR’s, but Atlanta pulled it out in an eventual slugfest..
Pirates were pretty good for 2 decades plus through early 80’s when salaries went way up. I liked them and especially “Pops”.
kylelohse
I read your comment in the voice of Grandpa Simpson. Totally works.
bringbackthebluee
As a Padre fan, I can’t stand cheap owners. They deserve to be punched in the face.
homerheins
That’s Supreme fan foolishness, like “I hope my team signs a bunch of contracts it can’t afford in order to possibly compete, so that it can’t possibly compete for a decade. I will be really happy if they placate my thirst to compete for a wild card for one year.” A padre fan should know that more than any. You have a dumb GM who bought Matt Kemp and bad defense to get a little offense, which hurt young pitchers. No, I will take the Tampa, Cleveland, Oakland models every time.
bringbackthebluee
I’m talking about the past owners not now. And I’m not crying for mega contracts, I just hate extreme cheapness. Like The Padres letting Hoffman go to the Brewers because they did not want to give him a little extra money. Or taking Matt Bush instead of Justin Verlander in the Draft to save money. Stay ignorant.
Goku the Knowledgable One
Exactly. Pirates wouldn’t even give guys short term deals to keep the team in contention post-2013.
One thing to make smart decisions, another to let half ur team walk and take 2-year deals that could’ve easily been matched
Buddy “Bud” Hull
“The city of Pittsburgh, in the meantime, has submitted Bob Nutting’s name to a list that SpaceX is organizing of individuals who would be prime examples to board a self-piloting, AI-controlled solo deep space information-acquiring super rocket, with little to no chance of returning to Earth within the next fifty years.”
ScottCFA
Forget Mars, “colon” wants to send Nutting to Uranus!
Buddy “Bud” Hull
Pittsburgh said it, “ScottCFA” — I just report it.
ScottCFA
Yeah, but SpaceX is trying to get a man to Mars. If they send Nutting, he might find his way back to Earth. Gotta think farther…Uranus!
paddyo furnichuh
Not to hinder your infantile humor, but Uranus is one of the gas giants. As such. if humans are ever in the vicinity, it will involve one of their many moons.
ScottCFA
The great baseball city of Pittsburgh deserves so much better than this cheapass owner! Since Nutting is obviously hard up, maybe we could take up a collection and buy the team (not serious, of course).
looiebelongsinthehall
Given the pandemic, this is a great time to make sweeping changes. Glad they gave severance packages. Ben made huge mistakes in free agency but the Pirates aren’t players anyway. His strength in Boston to a fault there was not trading any prospects. The art of being a GM is knowing who to trade and who to keep. No reason in a few years that the Pirates can be another Tampa. The problem for the Rays is going to be their ability to shrewdly trade with Pittsburgh has dried up.
PiratesFan1981
If the Green Bay Packers can do it, so can any other Major sports teams. Fans have a say in how the Packers are operated. They won 6 Super Bowls that away and ties them with Patriots and Steelers for the most Super Bowls in the league. So why hasn’t a fan base tried the “Packer way”?
NewMexicoLobo
The Packers are fortunate enough to be in the NFL, where there is a salary cap, This is the biggest reason they can perennial compete with, say, the Bears.
MLB’s lack of a cap does not allow small market teams to perennially compete with the Yankees and Dodgers, for example.
looiebelongsinthehall
Revenue sharing existed long before the cap and is the number #1A why small market clubs to compete. The cap is 1B.
ChangedName
Some good news for Pirates fans, at least they didn’t mention the Archer trade in this article.
The Human Toilet
Dang! 2 articles in a row without the Archer Trade being mentioned? Did MLBTR grow a heart and stopped torturing the poor Pirates fans? I guess they suffered enough.
richt
Stop using commas before too. It’s wholly unnecessary.
Stevil
This is a team that failed to hit the ceilings with Cole, Glasnow, Meadows, and I would argue Polanco given his tool-set (the injury didn’t help); struggling to get the best out of Tallion and Keller to date…
Reynolds, Newman and Frazier look decent, if not solid. Bell is a late-bloomer with just one season of significant power and horrible defense. Moran was part of the return for Cole and failed to finish/polish his development at the MLB level, and like Bell, offers no defense.
Then there’s Hayes, whose bat couldn’t do much in the hitter-friendly environment of AAA, and Cruz, who unleashed at home last season, but struggled heavily on the road.
Point is, Pittsburgh has had (and still has) some elite prospects that they couldn’t/can’t get the most out of. They already shook up the pitching side a bit, but they arguably needed organizational changes.
So, maybe new personnel can get them back on track. They’ll be in excellent shape if Tallion, Keller, Hayes, Gonzales, and Cruz pan out.
Dice 66
Bottom line you have to put talent on the field to win. If you win everything comes easier. I go way back with the Pirates. I saw the ’71 & ’79 championships. Since the early 70s, the development department hasn’t produced anyone close to Parker, Oliver, or Zisk. That’s when the winning stopped. That’s 30+ years! Go figure?
User 4095290658
Lol.
Barry Bonds and Andrew McCutchen…. maybe?
Dice 66
Bonds ,McCutchen ? That’s 2 guys in 40 yrs ? Pirates used to bring up hitters in waves that stopped years ago !
PiratesFan1981
Aramis Ramirez, Sterling Marte, Bonds, McCutchen, Bautista, Jeff King, Andy Van Slyke, Bobby Bonilla, Neil Walker, and many more since then 70s era have played in the majors. And for the most part, most of the Pirates teams in the 70s held little power (outside of the 1979 team) and won championships. So please detail how the Pirates haven’t adding hitters through the years
User 4095290658
Agreed.
Check this page out Dice 66. (Maybe I should shout in case he’s hard of hearing?)
CHECK THIS OUT DICE 66….
baseball-reference.com/teams/PIT/leaders_bat_50.sh…
Dice 66
Bottom line what is the reason for such poor play over an over ? Something sure as hell went wrong the last 40 yrs. I gave you one of my reasons.
jacl
Help me out. When was the last time the Pirates made the playoffs?
HubcapDiamondStarHalo
google.com/
joew
duckduckgo.com
joew
Shouldn’t be surprising, before the world was set ablaze massive changes where happening. This past summer might have changed how it was done, but likely was going to happen anyway.
Bannister leaving is a big kick in the nuts though.
mdunkel
Sounds like Nutting runs the Pirates making decisions “ by the gut” and just randomly without thinking about the consequences. Kind of like the NutJob in the White House.
bradthebluefish
Nothing about the pirates will change until they open up their books to add and keep talent.
brucenewton
The Pirates didn’t want a season. They’ll lose big money without fans. Shouldn’t surprise there were layoffs.
PiratesFan1981
They can have fans in the park, but I think the stipulation is 25% capacity is the limit. They get that nightly during the course of the season anyways
jekporkins
I’m trying to think if there is a worse-run franchise of all time in MLB.
1. The Pirates: Nuff said. History is on their side though, as they have been around for 100+ years.
2. The Padres: Haven’t had a winning season in a decade. 3747-4389 total record. in 52 years they have been to the playoffs five times.
3. Mariners: 3219-3622 record in 47 years. They have been to the playoffs four times.
User 4095290658
Worst run franchise of all time… seriously?
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Major_League_Basebal…
You people are either stupid or plain trolling.
Even during the last 10 years, the Buccos put up a more than respectable showing for one of the smallest market teams in MLB. In fact, with a bit more fortune in the playoffs, we could well be lauding the Leyland and Hurdle teams of the last thirty years as underdog champions rather than mistakenly wiping them from history like a Victorian era abolitionist’s statue.
Bob Nutting is a cheap owner, but he hired good baseball people who did well until the magic ran out. Yes, it’s likely his fault the rebuild stagnated, just like it’s not his fault that MLB refuses to adopt a league wide profit share similar to the other four major North American sports.
User 4095290658
Don’t get me wrong… the twenty year losing streak was inexcusable.
Or was it?
PNC Park is a direct product of the McClatchy intervention that lead to awful baseball decisions and the worst losing streak in sports.
But, now it’s all played out, I’ll take the best sporting arena in the world … thank you very kindly!
Dice 66
Bottom line what is the reason for such poor play over an over ? Something sure as hell went wrong the last 40 yrs. I gave you one of my reasons.