Clint Hurdle

Pirates Pitching Coach On Future After Difficult Season

By TC Zencka | September 28, 2019 at 10:46am CDT

The Pirates appear ready to roll it back next season under the leadership of President Frank Coonelly, general manager Neal Huntington and manager Clint Hurdle, per Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Pitching Coach Ray Searage is keeping his feet on the ground for now as he awaits ownership’s decision about his own fate. It stands to reason that Searage could be the fall guy if Hurdle returns after a tough season on the hill (and off) for Pirates pitchers.

Ex-Pirates pitchers, meanwhile, have excelled this season, as Tyler Glasnow, Charlie Morton, and Gerrit Cole can be counted among the league’s best. One could see their success as a testament to the tutelage received in Pittsburgh, as Searage suggests, though if ownership deems the above trio’s development as linked in any way to their departures from Steel City, a change in the coaching staff would seem appropriate.

The Pirates weathered criticism and fisticuffs throughout the year for a strategy of pitching up and in that didn’t always meld with a staff that struggled with location (3.63 walks per nine is the 23rd best mark in the league). And while it’s unnecessary to rehash here some of the obvious off-field complications for Pirates pitchers, the team’s 5.22 ERA is certainly apropos to a conversation about Searage’s future. As of today, they are tied for 26th in the league by ERA – easily the worst of the Clint Hurdle era. A fielding independent mark of 4.77 provides a slightly sunnier look on the Pirates’ year, though even that glass-half-full approach puts them in the bottom half of the MLB.

There was progress made on the offensive end, though Searage likely can’t claim much credit for Steven Brault’s “breakout” season at the plate The Pirates plan on converting their swingman into a two-way player a la Michael Lorenzen of the Reds. With a .341/.357/.439 mark across 49 plate appearances, you can almost argue Brault is a more polished offensive player than on the hill, where he is 4-6 with a 5.16 ERA/4.77 FIP across 19 starts and 6 relief appearances. The plan for now is for Brault to return to the rotation next season, though how exactly that would mesh with a role as a part-time outfielder is still in the storyboard phase of development.

Latest On Pirates Manager Clint Hurdle

By Steve Adams | September 26, 2019 at 6:50am CDT

TODAY: Mackey reports further that the front office has in fact not yet made any decision on Hurdle’s fate (Twitter link).

YESTERDAY, 9:41pm: Hurdle spoke to reporters Wednesday night, but he didn’t offer much of any insight on who told him he’d manage the team in 2020, nor would he even repeat that he’d been assured as much (Twitter link via Adam Berry of MLB.com). Asked about his job status, Hurdle said he preferred to “pass” on commenting, repeatedly telling the media, “That’s all I’ve got for you,” when pressed further.

8:40pm: Curiously, Huntington declined to confirm or deny Hurdle’s assertion that he’s been told he’ll return next year (Twitter link via Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette). Asked about Hurdle’s comments, the GM simply replied: “As we have in the past, we will publicly address any personnel decisions at the end of the season.”

6:45pm: While it’s been widely expected that the Pirates organization is in for significant turnover this winter, manager Clint Hurdle apparently won’t be among the casualties. Hurdle himself tells Stephen J. Nesbitt of The Athletic (subscription required) that he was recently assured he’ll be back in the manager’s seat next season.

It’s been a disastrous season in Pittsburgh both on and off the field. The Pirates have had clubhouse fights, multiple on-field brawls and also handed out a suspension to reliever Keone Kela due to a reported altercation with bullpen coach Euclides Rojas. The team’s record sits at a woeful 66-91 after snapping a nine-game losing streak yesterday. There’s been considerable speculation about the likeliehood of a managerial change for the first time in nearly a decade, but it seems that Hurdle, who is signed through the 2021 season, will be given at least another year to try to restore order in the clubhouse and help the club to turn the tides in the win column.

Hurdle describes the 2019 season as a “punch-back” after a “nice season” in 2018 — the Pirates went 82-79, finishing fourth in the NL Central — but spoke optimistically of righting the ship in the future. Hurdle adds that he feels he has plenty left in the tank to finish out his contract, “if that works out.”

It’s not clear whether the Pirates will make sweeping changes on the coaching staff or within the front office, although The Athletic’s Rob Biertempfel tweets that it “seems” that general manager Neal Huntington and team president Frank Coonelly will remain with the team as well.

In his career with the Pirates, Hurdle has managed to a winning record of 732-719, although much of that is attributable to 94- and 98-win seasons in 2013 and 2015, respectively, when Andrew McCutchen was at his peak level of dominance. Despite those impressive win totals, both seasons resulted in Wild Card berths rather than division titles. Since that 98-win apex in 2015, Pittsburgh is 39 games under .500.

Pirates Season Marked By Conflict On-Field And Off

By TC Zencka | August 17, 2019 at 9:38am CDT

Last night’s walkoff victory against the reeling Cubs aside, the Pirates are mired in a deep funk. They started the second half in free fall, going 6-25 as they’ve dipped from the fringes of the playoff race to (at one point) twenty games under .500. The Pirates have been involved in multiple on-field conflicts, with manager Clint Hurdle stealing focus as he spars with other managers within the NL Central. Hurdle has a well-known strategic proclivity towards pitching up and in – with which certain managers haven taken issue when Pirates hurlers struggle with their command. As a team, they rank 24th out of 30 in BB/9 with a team average of 3.58 BB/9.

Perhaps more worrying to the organization, in-fighting has become a hallmark of this Pirates squad, per The Athletic’s Rob Biertempfel. Mercurial reliever Keone Kela is the source of at least some of the conflict. Kela not only inspired the trade deadline fracas with the Reds by throwing behind Derek Dietrich, but he also took a two-game suspension earlier this season for his part in a clubhouse altercation with performance coach Hector Morales. The Buccos explored trading Kela, but ultimately failed to find a suitable deal, and it’s safe to wonder whether his trade worth took a hit, either from recent suspensions, injury history, or a reputation as a difficult clubhouse personality.

On the field, Kela missed too much time to raise his stock, returning from the injured list for just four appearances before the deadline. That put him at 18 appearances on the season with a 3.45 ERA and 17 strikeouts over 15 2/3 innings. Fine numbers not far off from Kela’s career norms, but clearly not compelling enough to drive significant trade interest.

Only a week after Kela’s incident, bullpen coach Euclides Rojas drove a pre-game on-field dust-up with reliever Kyle Crick. The incident nearly turned physical before the two men were pulled apart. Crick had been publicly bemoaning perceived preferential treatment given to closer Felipe Vazquez by the coaching staff.

Birtempfel notes that the clubhouse lacks the veteran leadership provided over the years by vets like A.J. Burnett, David Freese, Josh Harrison and Andrew McCutchen, or more recently from Jameson Taillon and Francisco Cervelli, who have been absent due to injuries.

It’s not all doom-and-gloom for the Pirates, however, as Crick insists there’s a growing camaraderie among this exceptionally young group of Pirates players.

The depth of conflict reported here certainly pulls back the curtain a touch further than usual. Not necessarily evidenced here, however, is the Pirates clubhouse being any more or less destructive than a typical clubhouse enduring a tough stretch on the field. Fangraphs Ben Clemens recently wrote this of the 5-24 stretch that opened the Pirates’ second half:

“Think of it this way: the worst team in baseball since World War II, by winning percentage, was the expansion New York Mets of 1962. They were cover-your-eyes awful, going 40-120, a .250 winning percentage. Let’s assume, despite its absurdity, that the Pirates suddenly transformed to a team with a .250 winning percentage overnight. Their odds of going 5-24 or worse over a 29-game stretch would still only be 23%. Even the worst team in baseball history, in other words, would be unlikely to look this bad over a month of play.”

Any clubhouse might struggle with a degree of in-fighting while losing at that rate. Still, the Pirates seem more combative than your average team. Hurdle seems to set the tone there, and though the team could very well emerge from this season more galvanized as a unit, it’s a troubling environment in which to see the indoctrination of young stars like Bryan Reynolds and Mitch Keller.

Quick Hits: Pirates, Huntington, Hurdle, Padres, Mariners

By Connor Byrne | August 9, 2019 at 8:59am CDT

As part of a mailbag covering the floundering Pirates, Rob Biertempfel of The Athletic (subscription link) focuses on team higher-ups whose jobs could be in jeopardy. Biertempfel writes it’s “more likely” the club will fire pitching coach Ray Searage and maybe bullpen coach Euclides Rojas than either GM Neal Huntington or manager Clint Hurdle, at least during the season. Searage’s ouster would mark the end of what has been an oft-praised Pirates stint, but this season has been a rough go for their pitching staff. How much blame he should take for that is up for debate. As for Huntington and Hurdle, their jobs for 2020 aren’t etched in stone, suggests Biertempfel, who reports owner Bob Nutting would be willing to eat their salaries and fire them “if he is convinced that there is no hope of improvement in 2020.” With that in mind, the onus could be on Huntington and Hurdle to explain why they should keep their positions.

More from Biertempfel, who dismisses the possibility of outfielder Lonnie Chisenhall playing for the Pirates this season. Chisenhall remains at home in Bradenton, Fla., mending from left calf troubles, and there won’t be enough time for him to return to the majors this year. It seems the $2.75MM the Pirates gave Chisenhall last offseason will go down as a wasted investment. By the time this season ends, injuries will have kept the former Indian out of 375 of a possible 486 regular-season games dating back to 2017.
After missing the first four-plus months of the season with a flexor strain, Padres left-handed reliever Jose Castillo finally made his 2019 debut on Thursday. It didn’t go well, however. Castillo exited with an injury to the middle finger on his throwing hand, per AJ Cassavell of MLB.com. It’s fortunate that it isn’t another elbow problem for Castillo, though he still could end up heading back to the injured list because of this issue. The 23-year-old hasn’t gotten a chance to build on a superb rookie campaign in 2018, when he fired 38 1/3 innings of 3.29 ERA/2.64 FIP ball with 12.21 K/9 against 2.82 BB/9.
Rehabbing Mariners righty Felix Hernandez threw two innings at the Single-A level Thursday, after which he told Julian A. Lopez of the Modesto Bee he feels ready to return to the majors. The Mariners have other plans, though – they want Hernandez to make two rehab appearances with Triple-A Tacoma before he finally goes back to the Seattle. Shoulder woes have kept the pending free agent from the M’s staff since May 11 in what could be the final season of his storied tenure with the franchise.

Suspensions Issued After Pirates/Reds Brawl

By Mark Polishuk | August 1, 2019 at 2:44pm CDT

Tuesday’s enormous brawl between the Pirates and the Reds has, unsurprisingly, led to multiple suspensions on both teams. Major League Baseball announced a total of 32 games’ worth of suspensions for six players, as well as a six-game suspension for Reds manager David Bell and a two-game ban for Pirates manager Clint Hurdle. All six players will appeal their penalties, while Bell and Hurdle will begin serving their bans immediately.

Here is the full list of suspensions issued…

Pirates’ Keone Kela, 10 games
Reds’ Amir Garrett, eight games
Pirates’ Jose Osuna, five games
Reds’ Jared Hughes, three games
Pirates’ Kyle Crick, three games
Indians’ Yasiel Puig (then a member of the Reds), three games

Fines were also issued to all six players. Joey Votto, Philip Ervin, and Trevor Williams also received fines, as did players on both teams who participated in the fracas despite being on the injured list.

Beyond just the brawl that began when Garrett rushed from the mound to go after the Pirates’ dugout, the suspensions cover a wide range of incidents during the game. Kela received the harshest punishment both “for his role in instigating the bench-clearing incident,” as per the league’s official release, and for throwing at Derek Dietrich’s head in the seventh inning.

There has been no love lost between the Pirates and Reds this season, as reflected in Hurdle’s suspension. The Pittsburgh skipper was cited for not only “his Club’s conduct during the incident,” but also for “multiple intentional pitches thrown at Dietrich this season.” Hurdle still received less punishment than Bell, whose six-game suspension was “for returning to the field following his ejection; escalating the incident with his aggressive actions; his Club’s intentional pitch at [Starling] Marte; and his numerous ejections this season.”

Pirates Hire Rick Eckstein As Hitting Coach

By TC Zencka | November 3, 2018 at 12:09pm CDT

The Pittsburgh Pirates have filled their hitting coach vacancy with former Nationals coach Rick Eckstein, per Bill Brink of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (via tweet).

Eckstein’s career can be traced back to 2004 when he served in the Montreal Expos’ organization as a minor league hitting coach for two seasons. From there he spent the next three years as the hitting coach for the Nationals’ and Cardinals’ Triple-A affiliates.

David Eckstein’s older brother joins manager Clint Hurdle’s staff with four years of previous major league hitting coach experience with the Washington Nationals from 2009 to 2013. After being released mid-season from manager Davey Johnson’s staff, Eckstein spent the year after in the Angels organization where he served as a front office liasion, a role that merged the responsibilities of an assistant hitting coach with those of an advanced scout.

For both 2015 and 2016, Eckstein moved to the college ranks as an assistant hitting coach for the University of Kentucky before spending the last two seasons as the minor league hitting coordinator for the Minnesota Twins.

He’ll work to improve a Pirates’ offense that scored 692 runs in 2018 – 20th overall in the MLB. They were 25th in home runs and 16th in slugging percentage. They did display some decent contact skills, striking out at the fifth lowest rate in the majors (20.3%) while tying for 8th league-wide in batting average (.254).

At his disposal, Eckstein will have an offensive core that should be entering their prime. Starling Marte is the oldest of the group at thirty, and Gregory Polanco is somehow still just 27-years-old – but they also boast a trio of 26-year-old regulars – Josh Bell, Adam Frazier, and Colin Moran – that will need to excel for the Pirates to contend in a crowded NL Central.

The 45-year-old Eckstein takes over for Jeff Branson, whom the Pirates let go along with assistant hitting coach Jeff Livesey in early October. Both Branson and Livesey had served in their posts since 2014.

NL Central Notes: Wilson, Cubs, Pham, Hurdle

By Steve Adams | January 9, 2018 at 6:56pm CDT

The struggles of left-hander Justin Wilson following a trade to the Cubs perplexed not only Chicago evaluators but execs throughout the league, writes Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic (subscription required and highly recommended). Sharma spoke to both Cubs manager Joe Maddon and GM Jed Hoyer about Wilson’s troubles, and Maddon made it clear that he views Wilson as an important part of the ’pen for the upcoming 2018 season. Hoyer, meanwhile, acknowledged that some of the blame likely falls on the organization, especially considering that these sort of struggles have happened in the past. (Sharma points to Adam Warren as one prominent example.) “…[W]e’ve had a number of guys who have come in and struggled beyond what they’ve done in the past,” Hoyer tells Sharma. “That’s something we have looked at and will continue to look at and talk about how we ’onboard’ guys, so to speak. … We’ve been, candidly, somewhat frustrated by it and we’ll keep working on it.”

Pirates Announce Extensions Of Neal Huntington, Clint Hurdle

By Jeff Todd | September 5, 2017 at 1:07pm CDT

The Pirates have announced matching, four-year extensions for both GM Neal Huntington and manager Clint Hurdle. Both are now under contract through the 2021 season; salary terms are unreported.

Hurdle’s deal was reported yesterday, though Huntington’s situation remained unclear. As we covered at the time, both of these key organizational figures were entering an offseason of uncertainty, with the Bucs possessing team options for the 2018 campaign.

Rather than simply taking the one year already contemplated in their prior contracts, Pirates president Frank Coonelly decided to reward both Huntington and Hurdle with yet greater commitments, calling each “selfless leaders who have made us a far stronger organization, both on and off the field.” Both had previously worked for one or three-year terms.

Some fans will find some cause for consternation in the timing of the move. After all, the Bucs are again failing to play to expectations after a 2013-15 run of success that reinvigorated hopes and fan interest. And the club has drawn fairly persistent accusations of being unwilling to spend when necessary. Most recently, hackles raised with the club’s curious move at the end of August to dump the salary of quality reliever Juan Nicasio. (At least as public perceptions go, it probably doesn’t help that Nicasio was claimed by the cross-state-rival Phillies, who had even less reason to pay his salary at this stage of the year.)

Still, it’s hard not to credit the work of the Huntington-Hurdle duo. The former came over from the Indians organization in advance of the 2008 season; while it took some time, and awaited the arrival of Hurdle a few years later, the club finally broke its long-running losing streak. Utilizing creative methods worthy of a book, Huntington’s front office — with Hurdle chipping in from the clubhouse and dugout — managed to field a roster that won 280 and lost 206 games from 2013 through 2015.

While those teams never advanced in the postseason, and things haven’t gone as well since, that doesn’t necessarily fall entirely on the shoulders of the GM and manager. The team’s exciting trio of outfielders was seen as perhaps the game’s best entering 2016; for a variety of reasons, they’ve combined to put up just 12 WAR over the last two years. Unlike some other organizations that have emerged in recent seasons, too, the Bucs have continued to carry less than $100MM in Opening Day payroll.

While the team has just not quite gotten enough from a variety of spots on the roster, Huntington has done well in acquiring and re-signing Ivan Nova, getting Felipe Rivero for pending free agent Mark Melancon, and acquiring and then extending the solid David Freese (who has been especially important with the unexpected loss of Jung Ho Kang). Every recent move hasn’t been a winner — the signings of Daniel Hudson and Ryan Vogelsong, for example — though perhaps the most strident complaints have been about opportunities that may have been missed owing mostly to payroll constraints.

All told, the current roster still holds plenty of talented players on appealing contracts. But some of the organization’s biggest stars — McCutchen and Gerrit Cole, in particular — are nearing free-agent eligibility, posing major questions (fraught with complicated baseball and public relations elements) to the front office and ownership group. How the Bucs will navigate the potentially turbulent waters remains to be seen, but the helmsmen will remain the same — albeit now with significant contractual protection to weather any short-term disappointments.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Pirates Agree To New Contract With Clint Hurdle

By Jeff Todd | September 4, 2017 at 5:35pm CDT

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.

Heyman’s Latest: Yanks, Mets, Darvish, Astros, Twins, Bucs

By Connor Byrne | August 10, 2017 at 7:56pm CDT

The Yankees showed interest in Mets second baseman Neil Walker before the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline, according to FanRag’s Jon Heyman. The crosstown rivals actually had a deal for Walker in place, tweets Mike Puma of Newsday, but it fell through over medical concerns. Walker suffered a partially torn hamstring in mid-June and returned shortly before the deadline. At that point, the Yankees had recently lost second baseman Starlin Castro to a hamstring injury of his own, but he’s now nearing a rehab assignment, per Bryan Hoch of MLB.com (Twitter link). As for Walker, the impending free agent has already cleared revocable waivers this month, making him eligible for a trade, though he’s owed sizable sum (around $6MM) through season’s end.

More from Heyman via a trio of columns, all of which are worth reading in full:

The Rangers don’t expect to reunite with Yu Darvish in free agency, suggests Heyman, who adds that they decided a couple days before the non-waiver deadline that they were going to trade the ace. Texas ended up dealing Darvish to the Dodgers right before the clock ran out. The Astros were a rumored Darvish suitor leading up to then, but they didn’t make a real effort to land him, reports Heyman.
Speaking of the Astros, their talks with the Tigers regarding Justin Verlander are all but dead, per Heyman, which jibes with a report from USA Today’s Bob Nightengale. “It never got close,” a personal familiar with the discussions told Heyman, and that source expects Verlander to still be in a Tigers uniform when the 2018 season begins. Houston was unwilling to deal any of its best prospects for the expensive, aging Verlander (or any of its other deadline targets), but a Tigers official told Heyman, “You’re trading an icon, you’ve got to get something back.” The Astros have been conservative in terms of making acquisitions this summer, surely because a 71-42 team doesn’t need a ton of help, but GM Jeff Luhnow’s lack of bold moves has led to frustration within the organization, writes Heyman. Ace Dallas Keuchel voiced some displeasure immediately after the club’s quiet deadline (only scuffling lefty Francisco Liriano came aboard), and outfielder Josh Reddick followed suit Thursday in an interview with MLB Network Radio (Twitter link). Astros players were “down in the dumps” after the deadline, Reddick revealed.
The Twins reportedly listened to offers for righty Ervin Santana in advance of the deadline, but their interest in dealing the solid mid-rotation starter was minimal, relays Heyman. Santana is under control through next season on fair $13.5MM salaries (his deal also features a $14MM club option for 2019), making it unlikely he’d go unclaimed on waivers this month, notes Heyman.
Although GM Sandy Alderson is in the last year of his contract, people around the Mets expect him to return in 2018. There’s less certainty surrounding manager Terry Collins, who’s also in a contract year. Heyman lists Mets bench coach Dickie Scott, Dodgers bench coach Bob Geren (who previously held that post with the Mets) and Athletics third base coach Chip Hale as potential replacements for Collins if he’s not back next year.
Meanwhile, both Pirates GM Neal Huntington and skipper Clint Hurdle appear safe. As long as the two want to return in 2018, the Pirates will exercise their options.
The White Sox would like to deal veteran hurlers Derek Holland, Miguel Gonzalez and Tyler Clippard, which isn’t surprising considering they’re impending free agents on a rebuilding team. Given the seasons they’re having, Holland and Gonzalez probably won’t carry much appeal to rotation-needy contenders, though Clippard has put up six straight scoreless appearances out of Chicago’s bullpen. Across that seven-inning span, Clippard allowed three hits and three walks, with nine strikeouts. MLBTR’s Steve Adams noted Wednesday that Clippard’s a prime August trade candidate.
The Diamondbacks were in on reliever Joe Smith before the Blue Jays dealt him to the Indians, but David Hernandez “seemed to be” Arizona’s top target, Heyman writes. The D-backs ended up acquiring Hernandez from the Angels, making this his second stint in Arizona. Hernandez has only thrown 2 2/3 innings in his return to the club, but they’ve been spotless (no runs, hits or walks allowed).

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