Could The Pittsburgh Pirates General Manager Search End Soon?
By Marty Leap
With the general manager meets set to take place this week, could the Pittsburgh Pirates search for a new general manager come to an end soon?
Today is November 11th which means a few things. First off, it is Veterans Day. With that, thank you to all of the Vets who have served our great nation, as well as their families for all of the sacrifices you have made. Without those sacrifices, we would not be lucky enough to get to talk about our favorite baseball team the way we do.
The second thing that November 11th mean is that the MLB offseason is off and running. Even though the offseason has begun, the Pittsburgh Pirates still find themselves without a general manager after firing Neal Huntington two weeks ago today. However, could this search be coming to an end soon?
Today, the MLB general managers meetings will begin in Scottsdale, Arizona. Every year the GM meetings go a long way toward laying the groundwork for moves that are made at the Winter Meetings in December. The problem, however, is that the Pirates are entering the GM meetings without a full time GM.
Interim GM Kevan Graves will represent the Pirates at the GM meetings. But you want a full time GM to be there to help lay the groundwork for potential trades, signings, etc. for next month. The work that Graves looks to do could be completely different from the work the team’s new full time GM may be looking to accomplish.
It would not be a surprise to see the Pirate have a new GM hired by the end of this week, if not sooner. According to Joel Sherman of the New York Post, the Pirates are down to three finalists for their open GM job.
Once that hire takes place, a new manager should not be far behind. Right now, I would still tab Minnesota Twins’ bench coach Derek Shelton as the odds on favorite to become the team’s new manager.
Even if the Pirates were to hire a GM today, it would likely be too late to have them be involved in the GM meetings. But the GM meetings taking place this week shows the importance of getting a permanent GM hired ASAP as the offseason calendar begins to get busy.
Owner Bob Nutting has had a search firm in place to help hire a new GM for over a week. This is the same search firm that helped the Milwaukee Brewers hire David Stearns and the Minnesota Twins hire Thad Levine, both of which were excellent hires. Hopefully, this search firm will hit a home run for the Pirates the way they did for the Brewers and Twins.