Pirates owner Bob Nutting announces no front office changes
By Matt Shetler
Pittsburgh Pirates’ owner Bob Nutting has been very quiet ever since he announced that he would be conducting an investigation on whether or not the Pirates’ front office would return.
Tuesday, Nutting broke his silence when he announced that the entire front office would return for the 2013 season.
Rob Biertempfel of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review confirmed the announcement via Twitter.
#Pirates Nutting says entire front office will stay intact. Hoka hey drills likely to end.
— RobBiertempfel (@RobBiertempfel) November 6, 2012
The vote of confidence for the entire staff will not please many Pirates’ fans.
July 24, 2012; Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Pittsburgh Pirates president Frank Coonelly (left) and Pirates general manager Neal Huntington (right) observe players at the batting cage before playing the Chicago Cubs at PNC Park. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-US PRESSWIRE
Team president Frank Coonelly, general manager Neal Huntington and assistant GMs Kyle Stark and Greg Smith all will be back, Nutting said, 42 days after Coonelly had said the same in his own statement. Nutting conducted his own internal investigation, interviewing dozens of people inside and outside the team.
Nutting did say that he’s not done with his investigation, but insists that the timing isn’t right for any moves.
One thing he did put a stop to is the military type training that has been a popular topic of conversation during the course of the past month.
Nutting told the Trib that he instructed the front office to focus on baseball.
“I believe that our primary responsibility is to develop baseball players to play baseball and win championships at PNC Park,” Nutting said. “We are not and we should not be a military organization. We should not run a boot-camp environment.”
Now that it is official that everyone is coming back next season, the next question will be how short the leash should be on everyone from Huntington and his staff all the way down to manager Clint Hurdle.
For their sake, they better get off to a good start because that leash should be very short.