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Rosenthal’s Latest: Pirates, Orioles, Twins, Mariners

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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.

Pirates Notes: Closer, McCutchen, Hurdle, Rebuild, Rivero

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Right-hander Chris Leroux, who played 41 of his 65 career MLB games in a Pirates uniform, is moving into a very different endeavo(u)r as the new star of The Bachelor Canada.  Leroux, 33, posted a 6.03 ERA over 71 2/3 career innings in the bigs from 2009-14, pitching for the Marlins and Yankees as well as the Bucs.  The Montreal native pitched for Canada in this year’s World Baseball Classic before announcing his retirement in March.

Here’s more (on the field) news out of Pittsburgh…

  • The Pirates announced to reporters today that they’ve pulling left-hander Tony Watson from the closer’s role (Twitter link via Stephen J. Nesbitt of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette). For the time being, Pittsburgh will rely on a combination of left-hander Felipe Rivero and right-hander Juan Nicasio in save situations. Both throw considerably harder than Watson and both have enjoyed a markedly better season than Watson, who has limped to a 4.44 ERA with 6.8 K/9, 2.7 BB/9 and a 41.4% ground-ball rate. Watson has been charged with two earned runs in four of his past seven appearances, and those struggles prompted the shift. The 32-year-old is a prime trade candidate, though his recent slump and deteriorating peripherals mean he’ll likely need a quick rebound if the Pirates are to receive much of value in exchange for their longtime reliever. To keep tabs on the ninth-inning situation for the Pirates and the other 29 teams, be sure to follow MLBTR’s affiliate Twitter site, @CloserNews.
  • MLB.com’s Bill Ladson recently spoke to Andrew McCutchen, Clint Hurdle and Josh Harrison in three separate interviews on the same episode of his Newsmakers podcast. Bucs fans will want to check out the interviews in their entirety (either at the provided link or here for a direct download), but here are a few quotes of note, including McCutchen on how he has tried to ignore persistent trade rumors.  “I just focus on my team, focus on the guys around me,” McCutchen said.  “The more I try to focus on, ’Where am I going to be? Am I going to be here? Am I going to stay here?’ the more I lose that time with my teammates — with my friends — the more I lose the present. … Of course this is where I want to be. This is what I have on me right now, and that’s all I’m focusing on.”
  • Speaking of those rumors, the outfielder chalked up the speculation to the need for hot stove chatter during a generally quiet Pirates offseason.  “The take was: ’People need news. People need something to talk about. People need that big name because that’s the only thing that’s going to draw peoples’ attention to click on a page.’ That’s the way I looked at it,” McCutchen said.  “People need something to talk about. So, in the midst of all of it, there was nothing that I could do. There may be some talks going on, but I’m a big name, and that’s about the only name that’s really big right now, at the time, so they talked about it. There could’ve been 10 other guys, 10 other big-name guys, that could’ve been in the same position in the news as myself, but since it was kind of a slow offseason, that’s the reason I think it was put out there. People need something to talk about. There’s nothing I can do about that. I can’t control that.”
  • The Pirates’ struggles both this year and in 2016 have led to whispers that the club could be considering a rebuild, though Hurdle denied this.  “Our focus is to win now, to win next year, win the year after,” Hurdle said.  “[General manager] Neal Huntington has echoed that statement ever since he’s been here.  Rebuilding… we reignite at times. We refuel at times. However, we don’t consider it rebuilding.”
  • Speaking of Rivero, his new part-time closer, Hurdle said that Huntington was “steadfast in wanting Rivero included…from the start” in the trade that brought the southpaw to Pittsburgh from the Nationals last year in exchange for Mark Melancon.  After two good seasons, Rivero has been flat-out dominant this season, posting an 0.58 ERA, 9.9 K/9 and 5.67 K/BB rate over 31 innings.

Bob Nutting Discusses Huntington, Hurdle, McCutchen, Pirates’ 2016 Performance

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Pirates owner Bob Nutting spoke to reporters, including the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review’s Rob Biertempfel, Monday morning. Here’s some of what Nutting had to say.

  • Nutting says he is not overly concerned at this point about potential contract extensions for GM Neal Huntington or manager Clint Hurdle, although he adds that he considers them “tremendous talents” and says he’s “very comfortable” with them. Both are signed through 2017 with team options for 2018.
  • Pirates brass has previously offered praise for star outfielder Andrew McCutchen and expressed hope to keep him beyond his current contract (which runs through 2017 with a team option for 2018). Those statements of hope have been vague, however, and the Pirates’ trade talks involving McCutchen this past winter seem to indicate they aren’t planning on extending him — a decision that might be defensible given the Pirates’ apparently limited means and McCutchen’s advancing age and underwhelming 2016 season. Nutting’s comments about McCutchen today seem consistent with the Pirates’ recent approach. “I appreciate him. I could spend the rest of the morning saying nice things and wonderful anecdotes about Andrew,” Nutting says. “If there were a way to keep him, clearly it would be wonderful to see him in a Pirates uniform.” Via Stephen J. Nesbitt of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, however, Nutting added, “If we have the appropriate goal set of making the team better, doing what’s right for Pittsburgh, doing what’s right for the Pirates, then it allows you to make some tough decisions that you know are the right thing to do,” apparently in reference to McCutchen.
  • Nutting says he thought the Pirates’ disappointing 78-win performance in 2016 was due to underperformance rather than to the Bucs’ perennially modest payroll. “We ended up with the season we did (in 2016) because the team and organization underperformed the level of talent that we had,” he says. “I really think it’s far more execution than what we put together.”

Central Notes: Pirates, Cardinals, Twins

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The Pirates have not discussed an extension with manager Clint Hurdle, Rob Biertempfel of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review writes. “How long will I go? I don’t know the shelf life,” says Hurdle. “I just know that I’m still engaged. I love what I do, I love who I’m doing it for, and I love who I’m doing it with. I’ll take it one year at a time.” There’s no indication Hurdle’s job is in danger, and he’s signed through 2017 with an option for 2018. Interestingly, though, Biertempfel notes that whenever Hurdle’s tenure with the Pirates does come to an end, there’s a good chance he could be replaced internally, with new bench coach and former Double-A skipper Tom Prince as a possible replacement. “We hope Clint manages the Pirates for a long time,” says Pirates president Frank Coonelly. “But, like with any other key leadership position, we want to be sure we’re developing successors. We have a bias toward promoting from within when possible, but we also have a bias toward hiring the best person for the job. If we develop our people the right way, they’ll be the best people for the job.” The Bucs already recently did develop another top big-league manager — former Bucs bench coach Jeff Banister was the 2015 AL Manager of the Year with the Rangers. Here’s more from the Central divisions.

  • Four-year deals for relievers are demonstrably dicey propositions, so it’s unclear why the Cardinals committed to Brett Cecil for that long, ESPN’s Keith Law writes (Insider only). Cecil was worth roughly $7.5MM per year (the annual value of the contract he just received) in 2013 through 2015, but it’s optimistic to expect him to be worth that several years from now, given the uninspiring histories of relievers who’ve received long-term deals (B.J. Ryan, Justin Speier, Joe Nathan, Steve Karsay, and so on).
  • Cardinals fans would be unwise to read too much into the news that the team has mentioned Michael Wacha’s name in trade talks, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes in a series of questions and answers about the Cards’ offseason plans. The Cardinals might simply be trying to gauge Wacha’s value, as they did in previous discussions about pitchers like Shelby Miller and Kyle Lohse.
  • Law praises the Twins for dropping Trevor Plouffe, on the grounds that his underwhelming defense makes him approximately replacement level. Law says he is curious to see whether the Twins will now turn to Miguel Sano at third base, since he is heavy for the position and has not been a good defender at the position throughout his career. (UZR and DRS rated Sano around average in 376 big-league innings at the position in 2016.)
  • The Twins have been in contact with free agent righty Justin Masterson, Mike Berardino of the Pioneer Press tweets. That’s not surprising, since new Twins head of baseball operations Derek Falvey previously worked with Masterson in the Indians organization. Masterson, formerly a solid big-league starter, had an underwhelming 2016 in the Bucs organization while fighting his way back from shoulder trouble, posting a 4.85 ERA, 6.1 K/9 and 4.4 BB/9 in 59 1/3 innings covering two minor league stops.

Pirates Notes: Starting Pitching, Coaches, Marte

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Here’s the latest on the Pirates, via Rob Biertempfel of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:

  • The team plans to add a veteran starting pitcher this winter, manager Clint Hurdle says. Retaining Ivan Nova is a possibility, although, as Biertempfel suggests, Nova seems likely to hit the free agent market. “It’s definitely one of the conversations we’ve already initiated, whether it be Nova or somebody else of that ilk,” Hurdle says. The Pirates don’t have much in the way of veteran starting pitching beyond Gerrit Cole, with a variety of 2016 rookies, including Jameson Taillon, Chad Kuhl, Tyler Glasnow, Steven Brault and Trevor Williams, lined up behind him. One veteran, Jeff Locke, lost his rotation spot this year and looks like a non-tender candidate, while another, Drew Hutchison, spent most of the year in the minors.
  • The Pirates do not plan any coaching changes this winter despite a losing season in 2016, GM Neal Huntington says. Hurdle is signed through 2017 with a team option for 2018.
  • The Bucs placed outfielder Starling Marte on the 15-day DL with back trouble this weekend, a seemingly unnecessary move that did not clear roster space for another player and was not tied to any clauses in Marte’s long-term deal. Huntington’s explanation for the move was vague. “He’s missed a large majority of (September), unlike some of the other guys like (Francisco) Cervelli, who are banged up,” said Huntington. “We felt it was useful for a variety of reasons to note that he went on the DL.” Biertempfel suggests that the move might have been intended to send a message to Marte that the Pirates were unhappy he didn’t play more in September. “I was still working on my back,” says Marte. “I was working to get back into the lineup, but it still hurt.”

NL Central Notes: Schwarber, Brewers, Liriano

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Injured Cubs slugger Kyle Schwarber probably isn’t going anywhere this summer, as Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times reports. President of baseball operations Theo Epstein gave strong signals that he’s got little interest in seeing Schwarber return from his knee injury in another uniform. While there’s always plenty of posturing this time of year, Epstein certainly made clear that there’s a higher-than-usual barrier to a trade involving the catcher/outfielder.

Here’s more from the NL Central:

  • The Brewers are winding up for what looks to be an important trade deadline, as MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy reports. Milwaukee has several notable names that rate amongst the top twenty trade candidates this summer, but few represent straightforward decisions. GM David Stearns says that “the calls have picked up over the last week to ten days,” though it’s “still largely informational.” Right now, the club is getting a feel for the teams it is looking to target in reaching agreements over the coming month. “You try to get a sense of what other clubs are doing, where you might have fits, so you can begin to do additional target work on certain target organizations,” says Stearns. “At this point, we feel well-prepared in terms of organizations we’re likely to have serious discussions with.”
  • Selling was never in the plans for the Pirates, but the club increasingly looks to be in a tough spot — in no small part due to the struggles of lefty Francisco Liriano, who owns a 5.33 ERA with 9.0 K/9 and 5.9 BB/9 on the year. Manager Clint Hurdle tells John Perrotto of the Beaver County Times that Liriano is still failing to command the ball with consistency. “Sometimes, it’s hard to pitch when you aren’t feeling the way you’ve felt when you’ve had success,” Hurdle said. “We’re going to continue to peel back the layers and try to push through this. We’ll continue to look at video. We’ll see if we can find some answers.” We have heard at least some suggestion that there’d be interest around the league in the talented lefty, who had turned in three-straight stellar campaigns heading into 2016. But he’s owed $13MM both this year and next, and surely any acquiring team would be looking for a buy-low opportunity.

Pirates Notes: Nicasio, Luebke, Hurdle

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Juan Nicasio has made the Pirates’ rotation, according to various reporters, including MLB.com’s Adam Berry (on Twitter). That means Nicasio will join Gerrit Cole, Francisco Liriano, Jon Niese and Jeff Locke, and veteran Ryan Vogelsong — who had been competing with Nicasio for the last rotation spot — will head to the bullpen. It’s been an interesting spring for Nicasio, who struggled with control while pitching for the Rockies and Dodgers in recent years but whiffed 24 batters against just five walks in 15 innings of Spring Training action. The Pirates will see if he can join a long line of hurlers who have rejuvenated their careers in Pittsburgh. Here’s more on the Bucs.

  • It was previously reported that lefty Cory Luebke’s opt-out was yesterday, but it’s actually today, SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo tweets. That means the Bucs will have to decide today whether Luebke has made their bullpen. It appears likely he will after a spring in which the previously injury-ravaged Luebke earned praise for his stuff, including a 94-MPH fastball and hard breaking ball.
  • The Pirates appear to be pursuing a new model for their starting pitching reclamation projects, Travis Sawchik of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review writes. Previously, they looked for pitchers with good fastballs and the ability to get strikeouts, and tried to help them with their command. But Vogelsong and Niese don’t fit that model, Sawchik notes (although it certainly looks like Nicasio does). “Jonathan might be of a different style than pitchers we acquired in the past,” says GM Neal Huntington. “But if you only stick to (one model) especially at the major league level, especially given how the market has evolved, you are really going to limit your options.”
  • Stephen J. Nesbitt of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette chronicles the baseball career of Bucs manager Clint Hurdle, which he began as a phenom with the Royals. Hurdle was mostly a bust as a player, and he fought a long battle with alcoholism, but he reemerged on the other side as a manager and is now one of the game’s most respected.

Pirates Extend Neal Huntington, Clint Hurdle

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The Pirates have announced that they've extended the contracts of general manager Neal Huntington and manager Clint Hurdle for three years each through 2017, with club options for 2018. Huntington and Hurdle had both been under contract through 2014, with team options for 2015. With Huntington and Hurdle's deals done, the Pirates are currently working on contracts for assistant GMs and coaches, Rob Biertempfel of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review tweets.

"Neal and Clint have led a team of baseball professionals, in the front office and on the field, that has transformed the Pittsburgh Pirates into a club that again must be reckoned with in the National League," says team president Frank Coonelly. "We are extremely pleased that they will continue to lead this team in Pittsburgh."

Prior to 2013, the Pirates had five straight losing seasons under Huntington and two straight under Hurdle, who was hired prior to the 2011 season. (Huntington inherited a poor big-league team and farm system upon taking the Pirates' GM job in 2007, so the losing in the first several seasons was not primarily his fault.) The team endured second-half collapses in both the 2011 and 2012 seasons.

In 2013, however, Huntington and Hurdle led the Pirates to their first winning season and playoff berth since 1992, as the team won 94 games and beat the Reds in the NL Wild Card game before falling to the Cardinals in the NLCS. Huntington's offseason acquisitions of Russell Martin, Francisco Liriano and Mark Melancon were crucial to the Pirates' success. Hurdle led a shift-heavy defensive strategy that was a key component of the Pirates' surprising season, and he took the 2013 National League Manager of the Year award for his efforts.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Nutting: Pirates Must Take Step Forward

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The Pirates extended general manager Neal Huntington following the 2011 season and extended manager Clint Hurdle this week. Despite those moves, Huntington and Hurdle face pressure from above, Danny Knobler of CBSSports.com reports. Owner Bob Nutting said the organization’s decision makers expect to win and that the franchise “must take a step forward." 

"The idea that an extension is somehow a free pass is exactly the message I would not want to send, and not the message Clint heard,” Nutting said. “We've shown we're willing to make a change if we need to, irrespective of the contract terms."

Nutting said the Pirates aim to win the World Series, but declined to clarify what a step forward would look like in further detail. Ending the franchise’s 20-year streak of losing seasons isn’t a goal in itself and would be "an inappropriate target" in Nutting’s view.

The Pirates came close to ending their streak of losing seasons in 2012, but finished with a 79-83 record. Huntington added Russell Martin, Jeff Karstens, Jason Grilli, Francisco Liriano and Jonathan Sanchez this offseason.

Pirates Extend Clint Hurdle

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The Pirates have officially extended the contract of manager Clint Hurdle through the 2014 season with an option for 2015, the team announced. Hurdle was entering the final season of his three-year deal with Pittsburgh.

“I feel privileged to have the opportunity to continue and finish what we started,” he said. “There’s no place I would rather be than in a Pirates uniform.”

Hurdle led the Pirates to a surprisingly hot start last season that peaked with a 64-54 mark in mid-August but the Bucs ultimately wound up with a 79-83 record.  For his managerial career, Hurdle owns a 685–798 record, good for a .462 winning percentage.

Rob Biertempfel of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review first reported the agreement (on Twitter). 

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