Pittsburgh Pirates: Team Hires Outside Firm for GM Search

The Pittsburgh Pirates are already falling behind this offseason.  Apparently, the team is trying to expedite their General Manager search.

The offseason is officially underway and the Pittsburgh Pirates still are looking for a new General Manager and manager.  Team’s in the MLB are already making trades and gauging the free agent market while the Pittsburgh Pirates are still looking for the person in charge of leading the offseason. Yes, they have Kevan Graves filling in as interim General Manager and making some decisions, but the sooner the Pittsburgh Pirates hire a General Manager the better off they will be going forward.

It is also very important for the Pittsburgh Pirates to find the right person to do the job.  The Bucs have not had a change in the front office since 2007, and it took a few years for then new General Manager Neal Huntington to get things heading into the right direction.  Now this team is in a much better spot than they were back then, but a new GM is going to have their own ideas and vision of how they want to get the Bucs back into contention.

According to a report from The Athletic, the Pittsburgh Pirates have brought in an outside agency to find the right person for the job.  Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic put out an article about what storylines to follow this offseason.  With the Bucs not having a General Manager, there is not much for him to report on in terms of potential player moves.  However, Rosenthal did confirm that the team hired a firm by the name Korn Ferry.  He went on to say:

"“Korn Ferry helped placed Zaidi (Giants) as well as Brewers GM David Stearns and Twins chief baseball officer Derek Falvey. Once the GM is hired, the team will resume its search for a manager — a search that began under former GM Neal Huntington.Don’t ask. No one in baseball can figure out the Pirates, either.”"

This is a very interesting approach by the organization.  There has been some rumor that former President Frank Coonelly was too involved with the day-to-day baseball operations.  Could new Pittsburgh Pirates President Travis Williams be trying to take more of a backseat on the baseball side of things, especially as he enters into a new sport?

If Williams is indeed taking a backseat it looks like he is hiring the right firm to lead the search.  David Stearns has done a great job with the Milwaukee Brewers, finding a balance between developing internal talent and finding it externally as well.  Meanwhile, Zaidi was the General Manager under Andrew Freidman with the Dodgers before being hired as the President of Baseball Operations for the Giants.  Obviously, he was considered one of the premier General Manager candidates in baseball for helping to build the Dodgers into an annual World Series favorite, and he was an Assistant General Manager and Director of Baseball Operations under Billy Beane before joining the Dodgers.

Obviously, the firm of Korn Ferry has done a good job at identifying the top candidates available.  If fans are losing trust in the Pittsburgh Pirates organization to make the correct decisions, then this should be viewed as positive alternative.  Hopefully, they can find a General Manager and hire a new manager before too long.