Pirates fire Russell; Keep Huntington

[Banedon]

As expected, the Pirates just announced that they've fired manager John Russell following a 105-loss season and 186-299 (.384) overall record in three years on the job.

 

However, general manager Neal Huntington will keep his job despite being hired just a couple months before Russell and of course being responsible for choosing the manager.

[SouthSideRyan]

As expected, the Pirates just announced that they've fired manager John Russell following a 105-loss season and 186-299 (.384) overall record in three years on the job.

 

However, general manager Neal Huntington will keep his job despite being hired just a couple months before Russell and of course being responsible for choosing the manager.

 

Why is that explanation necessary. It's not like it's rare that a GM hires and fires a manager while keeping his job.

[Jake]

Why is that explanation necessary. It's not like it's rare that a GM hires and fires a manager while keeping his job.

Although it's not apparent from the above quote, there was speculation that Huntington's job was not safe.

[SouthSideRyan]

Does Huntington get the same Plaschke like hatred from the Pittsburgh writers for being a stats guy, or do they not care anymore?

[Jake]

He does. A lot of his early season moves got panned, notably some weird outfield alignments, Some questionable pickups, no physical performed on Aki, then no followup to see if he was keeping in shape, Keeping Charlie Morton in the rotation was a front office decision. There's more, this is just what popped into my head without having to think much about it.