The Pirates have reached agreement on a four-year extension with skipper Clint Hurdle, according to a report from Bill Brink of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Hurdle, 60, will now be under contract through 2021.
This represents the lengthiest commitment the club has made to Hurdle, who has been at the dugout helm since 2011. He originally signed a three-year contract, then added a year and an option, then inked a three-year extension with another option season. That last deal left the club with the right to keep Hurdle around for 2018; instead, though, the organization elected to strike a lengthier pact.
When Pittsburgh initially hired Hurdle, who had previously managed the Rockies, the organization had yet to post a winning season since way back in 1992. That did not change right away, but Hurdle and GM Neal Huntington helped oversee a return to prominence beginning in 2013.
The Bucs ran off an impressive 280-206 record from 2013 through 2015, though somehow the club never managed to take a division crown in a competitive NL Central. Unfortunately, too, Pittsburgh fizzled in all three trips to the postseason.
Since that time, the Pirates have faltered. After a disappointing 2016 campaign, the team has again fallen shy of expectations — though it’s tough to find much cause to blame Hurdle for the notable roster absences the club has dealt with.
What’s not yet known is whether Hurdle will continue to partner with GM Neal Huntington. Pittsburgh can also retain Huntington through a 2018 club option. At this time, there’s no real indication as to how that situation will play out.
Good move by Pittsburgh.
Cool.
I can’t wait to read on the website that wouldn’t pay to keep it’s Pirates beat writer and then tried to replace him with someone weeks out of college before replacing him with no one at all how this makes the Pirates cheap and incompetent.
That can’t be the PG, Trib or MLB.com, so it can’t be too reputable of a website.
Those three ‘newspapers’ still have their beat writers.
I guess it cannot be…
Now I understand why you always make such uninformed comments. It’s not your fault. It’s your news source.
Ironically, I’m mocking the BS they shovel down the throats of the yinzer parrots who repeat said drivel as fact.
Poison wanna cracker?
College newbies are the only reporters that care to write anything about the pirates anymore.
No self respecting reporter gives a crap about them anymore.
I’m pretty shocked here. That’s quite the commitment from this team. I think he is solid and I like Clint, but I do wonder if someone else could get more out of this squad (and I have no suggestions as to whom is available that would be better).
Still, I’m surprised; if not slightly impressed.
really…..wtf….
Hurdle isnt perfect but is pretty good. i duno who else is available but is a good keeper.
That’s about exactly how I feel about this. Hurdle’s done about as well as anyone could expect to do with the hands he has been dealt. I just don’t see how too much of the blame for the past 2 years can be placed on Clint. The team seems to love him and play hard every day for him. The problem is that the current team isn’t talented enough, and not nearly as talented as some led us to believe they would be… yet?
Pirates need a youth movement if they’re ever gonna compete in the NL Central again. Yet he insists on playing guys like Stewart, Jaso, and Rodriguez over Diaz, Osuna, and Frazier. Expect the Pirates to be cellar dwellers for the foreseeable future.
Frazier is hurt, Diaz has been playing, Jaso not so much. Moroff will be the starting 2nd baseman. Luplow and Osuna will be platooning in right. Bell is the every day 1st baseman. Sounds like the kids are playing.
most the guys are pretty young, problem isnt age. the problem is guys playing and playing to potential or even close to it and of course pitching. im not sure how much difference a full season of kang and marte would have made, or a healthy polanco hitting .270 would have done but surely a few wins.
Might have given them 10 or 12 mor wins with all 3 playing healthy all year.
That guarantees 4 more losing years
Dont worry guys, we are extending NH as well
“It is more profitable for me to have a team that is in contention for most of the season but finishes about fourth. A team like that will draw well enough for the first part of the season to show a profit for the year. And you don’t have to give the players raises when they don’t win.”
Connie Mack, Manager, Pirates
Seems to be the philosophy of the current owner.
“Small franchises can’t win”?
Tell that to the Penguins owners.
The Penguins have the same payroll as every other team in the league because they have a salary cap in the NHL. Since free agency exploded in baseball, exactly ONE small market MLB team has won in a quarter century.
Oh, and EVERY SINGLE TIME the Penguins are not BOTH Cup Contenders and in possession of the best player in the world, the team barely draws any fans and goes bankrupt or talks about moving the team.
In fact, the team had the best player in the world (Jagr) and made the playoffs every year in the late 90’s and they STILL went bankrupt.
The Dodgers have 3 times the payroll and ten times the revenue as the Pirates.
Bring in any other owner and they will run the Pirates the same way (or worse, McClatchy made Nutting look like Illitch) because that’s the economic reality of the team. They play in a small market with fair weather fans.
The ONLY way anyone would run the team differently is if they were super rich with a massive ego and were willing to lose money year after year to get attention and placate said ego….which is why yinzers are ALWAYS pining for Mark Cuban.
Nutting is one of the richest 5 owners in MLB, he is just a Jew with no desire to invest what it takes to be a champion
Bell trolls begs to be punched in the face. If I ever meet that person in public I’ll grant them that wish.
A Nutting by any other name is still a Nutting… nice try with name change, but every owner is justified in his own eyes and will always tweak the story for his personal convenience.
I just know what I read by the writers who’s job it is to dig out the truth.
“There’s no such thing as a small-market team
Just because an owner doesn’t want to spend more money doesn’t mean they can’t.
By Henry Druschel on December 13, 2016 9:00 am
It’s puzzling to me why anybody would oppose this.
It isn’t like the Pirates we’re going to steal Maddon or Francona. It would be somebody like Tom Prince or Michael Ryan (Altoona Mgr. who grew up 45 miles outside of Pittsburgh in Indiana, PA).
Then the “fans” would gripe that the team was too cheap to get a “real” manager.
I have lived in or around Pittsburgh for 10 years and it seems like the “fans” here are only happy when they’re unhappy.
Hurdle is really the only option.
“I have lived in or around Pittsburgh for 10 years and it seems like the “fans” here are only happy when they’re unhappy.”
Bingo. It’s quite bizarre (but rather fascinating). They are only happy when the sky is falling so can then complain about it.
because it’s Steelers country…
It only became “Steeler County” in the mid 70’s when they actually started to win. Not so much before that. Pens played before a half empty Civic Arena before Lemieux came. Fans will complain about both of those franchises when they start losing agin. That is what yinzers do. They parrot the sports writers and sports talk hosts all the time.
Since the mid seventies is a long stretch of winning though..
Not so much after Bradshaw and Before Roethlisberger. Whole lot of ugly seasons with Bubby B et al. Whole bunch of complaining by Stiller fans in those years. Waiting list for season tickets shortened for the first time in years. My point was, before the 70’s the Steelers were behind the Pirates in popularity simply becuase the stunk far worse than the Pirates.
Yea maybe so,but that whole state is Football crazy both pro and College…like it or not MLB will always take the backseat.
Funny Bell trolls acts like they have all the answers meanwhile knows nothing but how to be Nutting’s person troll.
Fans who never miss a pitch could explain why this is a frustrating decision. However, I won’t try and explain it to someone who makes a comment like happy unhappy fans.
Just a friendly reminder, the moving van has reverse.
“Well, if you don’t like us being whiny yinzers, feel free to leave Whiny Yinzer Land and don’t let the whiny yinzer door hit you on the way out.”
People who have never left the 412/724 area code in their lives fascinate me.
Left the area. That’s why I like the cards more then the pirates anymore.
Have always loved the penguins and Steelers though good or bad.
Has everything to do with good management. Especially with the penguins now. Back in the 1980-2000 liked them despite horrible management.
You could say that about just about every fan of every team
Hurdle has many positives. Among them aren’t his ability to know how to effectively use his bullpen or his affinity for veteran players over youth. Or his insistence on leaving starters on the bump too long.
I would certainly agree that Hurdle has reached the stage in his career (which pretty much every manager does) that he is too comfortable with his veterans. Why else would Jaso be a quasi-starter and Chris Stewart continue to be on the roster?