At 27-35, the Pirates on track to miss the playoffs for the second straight year. But the club’s recent woes aren’t threatening the job security of either GM Neal Huntington or manager Clint Hurdle, says FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal, who reports that the two are good bets to sign contract extensions before the season ends. Huntington has been at the helm since 2007, Hurdle dating back to 2011, and the team has gone to the playoffs three times during their six-plus-year partnership. The Pirates are now headed for their fourth sub-.500 season under the Huntington-Hurdle tandem, though, and look as if they’ll sell at the deadline, as MLBTR’s Charlie Wilmoth wrote earlier Saturday.
More from Rosenthal:
- The Orioles have experienced a fair amount of success since 2012, when they hired GM Dan Duquette to team with manager Buck Showalter. Despite that, Duquette and Showalter have an “unsteady” relationship, according to Rosenthal. Therefore, with their contracts set to expire after next season, one or both might end up on the outs in the near future. Showalter, who will be 62 after next season, could take over Duquette’s current job, per Rosenthal.
- If the 32-26 Twins remain in contention around the deadline, not only will they have a hard time parting with trade candidates such as Ervin Santana and Brian Dozier, but they could end up as buyers, suggests Rosenthal. In that situation, the Twins would likely target cheap starting help to aid a rotation that’s missing Phil Hughes and Hector Santiago, both of whom are on the disabled list. Hughes and Santiago have struggled even when healthy this year for Minnesota, whose rotation entered Saturday a solid 12th in the majors in ERA but a troubling 26th in FIP.
- The Mariners will have to address long-term needs in their rotation either at the deadline or during the offseason, notes Rosenthal. Hisashi Iwakuma, Yovani Gallardo and Drew Smyly are only under control for another two years at the most (the first two have club options for 2018), leaving Seattle with James Paxton, Felix Hernandez and Ariel Miranda as its only current prominent starters under contract through 2019.
Twins need more then cheap starting pitcher help. They need a number 3 starter and a late inning reliever plus another strike out reliever. The twins have 5 everyday regulars and 2 two starting pitchers all under 25 years old. Not worth trading away top prospects to win now when guys like gordon, gonsalves and romero all going to be ready to contribute next year and there window to contend is going to be 2018-2022
Twins are in a weird place. They shouldn’t buy, but sell off their more mediocre players and not worry about contending for a couple more years til other prospects come into their own. If they aren’t careful, they could screw up the future for a while.
I dont see it being a couple years already one of the best defensives to go with a good offense that will only get better when kepler and sano get more experience and buxton cant be any worse offensively only can go up. They have 24 million coming off the books this offseason and 45 million next year. They bring in someone like darvish (i know long shot) they have the money to spend and a darvish connection With Thad the new GM
I think any “buying” either needs to be at the right cost, or a longer term piece. There’s no point in going through this long of a rebuild and then throwing it all away at the first glimmer of success.
I agree no need to make a major deal. if they keep this up I say we buy a small piece like we did in Jepsen in 2015 and if we fall off a bit we just deal our rentals and reload for next year
“At 27-35, the Pirates *are* on track…”
the pirates need to consider trading cole , watson and Cutch.
The Mariners have sorted out their offense for the near future, and it’s time to do the same with the rotation. Really impressed with Bergman and Gaviglio- both are strike throwers that fit well at the Safe. Andrew Moore has performed well after his AAA promotion- he’s another soft tossing strike thrower who will fit up in Seattle. Looking forward to seeing him. My point is, although I’d love a SP1 stud, let’s not sell the farm for a 3 month rental. GOMS
Agree.
Not sure why Gaviglio and Bergman are often overlooked as viable rotation pieces. Gaviglio could easily fill the 4 or 5 spot in the rotation at a fraction of the cost AND he is just as effective – if not more effective – than these guys. Mariners need to think outside the box on this issue.
The extensions for Hurdle and Huntingdon are terrific news for two reasons…
A) Both are good at their jobs.
B) The Madden’s minions minds are melting. Poor yinzers. Funny to watch, though.
If you think those two are good at their jobs…..
Madden is and always has been right about the pirates no their management. I just don’t watch anymore
Madden is right about Nutting. That’s the extent of his baseball knowledge. Otherwise, he is so out of his depth on baseball as to be embarrassing.
Yinzers can’t do math. It requires thinking for themselves. They prefer to let fat blowhards do that for them.
If people want to trash Nutting, that’s fine, BUT…you can’t trash him AND then trash Hurdle and/or Huntingdon or else you have to simply deny reality and pretend that they didn’t win 98 games, make the playoffs 3 straight years or have the most successful 5 year run of any small market team this side of Kansas City.
If the owner is as bad as they say, then what the manager and GM have done in spite of that is AMAZING.
Conversely, you can’t claim the manager and GM have failed unless you can can claim that the owner gave them the resources to be successful and they simply didn’t get the job done.
Pick one, Yinzers.
Well said.
This is why they don’t do more. Pirates management could dedicate in you hat and you would put it on, bad say thank you.
Polly, wanna cracker? Verbatim Madden quote. Didn’t they teach you in school to change a few words to make your plagiarism less obvious?
Madden could call you stupid on a daily basis (actually, no could needed, he does) and you’d still hang on his every word and repeat them like a parrot perched on his fat shoulder.
This is why he doesn’t have to come up with better baseball talk.
The Pirates have too many factors working against them that prevent the hope of a turnaround this season. Kang is in perpetual limbo, McCutchen’s ’17 is even worse than his ’16, Marte won’t be back for another month, and Cole continues his struggles. Time to retool.