The Pirates and Team President Frank Coonelly have mutually agreed to part ways, reports Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. (The organization has since announced the move). Coonelly, 59, had been with the organization since 2007. The club will name Coonelly’s replacement next Monday, adds Jon Heyman of MLB Network (via Twitter). While Coonelly was responsible for the hiring of General Manager Neal Huntington just a month after the former came on board, Heyman adds that Huntington’s job remains safe.
Mackey reports that Pirates owner Bob Nutting was, unsurprisingly, significantly involved in today’s move. Nutting has become increasingly dissatisfied with the Pirates’ attendance, Mackey adds, although he also notes it difficult to gauge how much blame Coonelly should shoulder given the team’s underwhelming performance in recent seasons. Nutting himself, of course, has come under fire at times for the club’s payrolls, which consistently sit among the bottom third of the league.
This season was an unmitigated disaster for the organization. Not only did the team fall flat on the field, limping to a 69-93 record, it dealt with significant issues off it. Clubhouse discord bubbled to the surface and was leaked to the public, to say nothing of the heinous criminal acts allegedly committed by one of the organization’s highest-profile players. Coonelly certainly doesn’t deserve blame for all of the franchise’s woes, but it did seem that something of a house cleaning was in order, and Coonelly follows fired manager Clint Hurdle out the door.
It’s not yet clear what ramifications, if any, this will have on the Bucs’ baseball operations. 2020 could certainly be a make-or-break year for Huntington, at least. The organization is making changes both above and below him in the pecking order, so questions about his future as GM figure to persist in the coming months.
It’s the owner who needs to go.
Right!
Too bad you can’t fire the owner.
Wouldn’t shock me if the manager search was put on the back burner if this guy was backing Huntington. If he was and his backer is gone, Huntington might go next and then let whoever his replacement is pick the next manager.
Not a pirate fan, but can someone explain what is going on over there? Is it ownership?
yes. ownership sucks.
Owner be cheap…..
How about Obama? He was a president. Bush was too, kind of.
Since Bush has previous experience owning the Texas Rangers, I would totally endorse that. Also he throws a perfect change up (ie 2001 World Series)
Huntington is not the problem. He’s done pretty well with limited resources. Nutting is the problem. Until he sells, it’s going to be rough.
Well….there’s that Archer/Meadows…Glasnow etc debacle. Anyone who approved that heist has to go.
It was a gamble that sadly hasn’t paid off. Glasnow was struggling at the Majors and Meadows was blocked in the outfield because Polanco decided to finally breakout before hitting the DL. And they needed the pitching
and Baz?
Who exactly was blocking Meadows? Corey Dickerson’s 2019 contract?? The whole reason they gave the fans that they couldn’t keep McCutchen was because he was blocking Meadows…… 5 months before they traded Meadows…..
Yes. and the fact that 50% of the playoff teams this year were small market….so you have that too.
Get a clue, joshize.
::pulls back clepto’s mask to reveal Bob Nutting::
I KNEW IT!
NH is absolutely ONE of the problems.
Huntingdon is a problem. Granted Nutting is the #1 problem. Many GMs would have been fired simply because of the Cole & Meadows/Glasnow Trade’s.
Wow, NH must have some dirt on someone to have survived this
Nutting probably told him that he doesn’t actually care about winning, and the only reason Huntington hasn’t been fired is because he’s got the tape recording to prove it.
If Nutting is surprised about the attendance he should open his wallet and put a contender on the field !
Nutting being concerned about attendance is laughable. He does realize why people aren’t coming, right???
Pirates have the worst owner in MLB. But yes, blame his employees.
The Mets would like a word with you.
If the Pirates don’t want to spend money now, they should then commit to a total rebuild. This having a few good guys making good money just to stay competitive is not where you want to live. Sell off those good guys for good young depth. In a few years, spend the money on the free agents that can fill the holes.
They are in a perpetual rebuild.
How to you account for 2013-2015?
lighting in a bottle. got lucky with a few reclamation products.
They were afraid to trade Alan Hanson or Tyler Glasnow for a David Price or Chris Archer in 2014 when they could have gotten over the hump and won a couple division titles with a true ace.. So yeah, hanging onto prospects rather than addressing a big need to win sounds like perpetual rebuild. (see – Verlander and Astros on how that makes all the difference in the world at a trade deadline for a guy with a year or two on his contract to help in a deadline deal).
So…everyone goes but the aside from the two guys with the biggest blame for this mess in Nutting and Huntington? Makes sense.
I don’t even blame Huntington. He has to run that team on Nutting’s shoestring budget. I have, however, lost a lot of respect for Huntington over the years. At what point as Nutting’s GM do you have to step back and say “Enough is enough?” Huntington has NEVER done that. What that means to me is he is a willing partner in the fleecing of that business. By the time Nutting sells that mess of a business there will be practically nothing left to sell.
Maybe this will actually open Nutting’s eyes and he will think “Gee if I want attendance to go up maybe I should invest in the on-field product.” Coonley leaving hopefully means the guy that comes in has the authority to make his own decision on Huntington and Nutting did not offer Huntington any assurances.
Methinks, in a bizarre twist of fate, either Matty Silverman or Chaim Bloom of the Rays’ FO winds up in Pittsburgh…….
The irony of this is that the guy most deserving of dismissal can’t be fired. Thanks for Nutting.
Even when they had The Pittsburgh Lumber Company dynasty in the 1970s, the Pirates still had many empty seats.
This is something I can’t get passed: The actual attendance in PIT is estimated to be 1/10 paid attendance. In some cases, like when MIA visits, the paid attendance is a sell out but, there’s less than 900 people in the stands. If the stadium is sold out, how can someone who didn’t buy in advance get a seat?
They claim a sellout when there is less than 900 people? I don’t know where you’re hearing this. Lived here all of my life and I’ve never heard this.
You’re using one Sports Illustrated story to back up your entire argument when it was a very limited example. The two worst teams in the MLB were facing off, with the home team having gone something like 4-23 over their previous 27 games. Nobody is going to show up for that, regardless of what teams are playing. The 9,000 paid attendees were mostly season ticket holders who decided not to show up to the game, and they didn’t declare that game a sell-out, because there’s almost 25,000 seats at PNC Park. Case in point, you can’t use one article as the entire basis of your argument.
There’s only one position that needs replaced that will truly make a difference. And that’s team owner Bob Nutting. Everything else is just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
Nailed it, Mario.
Progress towards Nutting accepting a new GM & shift in philosophy is critical. If Huntington weren’t under contract through 2021, he’d probably be out too. This Is clearly the worst managerial vacancy.
Hurdle was under contract until 2021. That didn’t stop Nutting.
exactly. NH should be gone as well.
So Pirate fans are not responding to a substandard product unnecessarily run on a shoestring, and that’s Coonelly’s fault? Yup, surrrre.
Hey Pittsburg… Heard Ozzie Guillen is looking to manage again. Probably won’t help anything but at least it would make the Pirate circus entertaining….
My dear is that come Monday, Huntington will be elevated to team president and one of his cronies will be installed as GM. Fingers crossed that it’s Silverman or Bloom as someone suggested.
Fear, not dear.
who cares this organization is joke one of best ballparks in baseball one of best uniforms in all of baseball very rich in baseball history one of worst owners and gm every in professional sports always complain about fan attendance Willie and Roberto legacy is being destroyed year after year
Can whole franchises be traded? Trade the Pirates to Tampa so this dump organization has a stadium to match. Then the Rays get the best ballpark in baseball to play in.
Win/win?
I should add that cheap Bob Nutting would love the reduced travel expenses of having Spring Training so close to his new baseball palace in St. Pete.
Bring the Rays to Pittsburgh and send Nutting’s Bad News Bucs to Tampa/St. Pete!
hell of an idea. I would love to see that. at least Tampa actually can scout and project prospects.
I believe NH HAS done a decent job with what he has been given. However, after a season like 2019, it just seems like everyone needs to go. Getting spare parts for Cole and then mortgaging their future for Archer HAS to raise significant questions, too.
Huntingdon has not done a decent job.
Word on the street, near Forbes Field, Dave Dombrowski is the new Pirate GM
Why can’t the Braves ever go after an Ace. They would rather blow money on Markakis, Teheran and Flowers and keep a bunch of vets who don’t perform in the playoffs than go for it. But hey at least they will have “financial flexibility”. But congratulations for winning next year’s world series Yankees if you get him.
Bob- you the reason the pirates are in this position. You get what you pay for bud. Take a look at the Astros and their business. Hint hint.
So, let’s say that Nutting sells the team…
Will MLB suddenly have a salary cap? Will Pittsburgh suddenly become a top ten market?
Or is the Pirates “fans” only hope that a rich narcissist will buy the team and pour his own money into the team to try to win for his own ego’s sake? (The part where they always specifically hope for Mark Cuban might answer that question).
Part of the problem might be an openly and proudly fair weather fan base that wants the New Yankees at Altoona Curve prices.
Are you serious, joshbelltolls? If they don’t have the money, that’s fine. There other teams that don’t spend money, but are continually involved in the playoffs (ie – Rays). The Pirates are a laughing stock! How do you let Cole walk b/c you don’t have the money to sign him, but then unload several solid prospects for 29-year-old Chris Archer the following year???
Here are the Largest free agent deals in Pittsburgh Pirates history: Francisco Liriano (3y/$39 million), Ivan Nova (3y/$26 million), Russell Martin (2y/$17 million).
Wow…impressive, eh? Allllllllllllllllllllll those free agents over the past however many years are this is the best you could do? It’s pathetic and the fact that you can diss your own “fans” while you wear blinders to look past this glaringly obvious situation is even more scary. I hate to see the Pirates flounder like this but there is too much stupidity within that organization and it starts at the top.
I have signed no free agents. Nor do I have “fans”. I am not the Pirates.
Just FYI.
And since you missed the point, I’ll make it very very very clear…
If the fan base wasn’t (mostly) awful, a new owner would pay enough to buy the team from Nutting. But, it is. So none does.
And yes, ownership has given the fans little reason to care for two decades, but…they drew poorly even when they were good. The only MLB team to never draw 2.5 million fans. Ever. Not with Honus Wagner. Not with Robero Clemente. Not with Willie Stargell. Not with Barry Bonds.
PNC will likely be a AAA stadium in the next dozen years as there appears to be nothing coming to stop the death spiral.
It’s a shame.
> How do you let Cole walk b/c you don’t have the money to sign him
Scot and the pirates don’t have a great relationship and Scot often ‘uses’ small markets to get big markets to raise their offers for bigger named players.
> Here are the Largest free agent deals in Pittsburgh Pirates history…..
all three where good signings (especially Martin who was a key to the pirates brief turn around) and ‘great’ at the price until Liriano fell apart.. oh and you for got to add Chisenhall to that list 😉
> Allllllllllllllllllllll those free agents over the past however many years are this is the best you could do?
Yes and No. Yes because some of the money was there. No because big name players don’t typically want to sign in a small market and recently not for a team that is loosing. The team will need to make ‘big’ moves for players and have success with those players before larger names will consider the pirates. That was one goal of getting archer.. (hasn’t worked out that way though)
the stupidity you mention is more scouts and MLB development. Star players (Glasnow for example) was awesome in triple A, failled in Pittsburgh.. goes to a new team and in a short time goes to greatness that we knew he had. Cole’s while great to start went to ‘crap’ after the MLB team tried to tweak him.
You can go one and say some similar things with Joe, Travis, Brault, Kuhl…
not an excuse.. just some explanation. From a fellow arm chair GM