Pittsburgh Pirates To Introduce Ben Cherington at Noon

The Pittsburgh Pirates will officially introduce their new General Manager at 12:00 PM eastern time today.  This will officially start the new era under Ben Cherington.

Over this past weekend, it was announced that the Pittsburgh Pirates would be officially hiring Ben Cherington to lead their next front office.  While it has been reported that the team will be introducing Cherington as the next General Manager, there were some early reports that suggested he could be hired as the President of Baseball Operations.

While the title should not make a difference it will be interesting to see how they introduce Cherington.  If they do hire him as the President of Baseball Operations there is potential that the team could still look for a General Manager.  This is how the Chicago Cubs operate with Theo Epstein being the President while Jed Hoyer works as the General Manager.  It is becoming more of a trend in baseball.

In general, it will be interesting to see what the former World Series Champion has to say about his plans going forward.  The Pittsburgh Pirates just ended their most disappointing season since 2010 and looked completely directionless under the former regime.  Will Cherington tip his plans for the offseason about a potential quick rebuild, a complete reset, or try to build upon the current roster?

It will also be interesting to see the process of how everything else takes shape after today’s press conference.  It has been reported that Cherington likes the work the Pittsburgh Pirates did on potential manager candidates and seems to prefer either Twins’ bench coach Derek Shelton or Oakland Quality Control Coach and former player Mark Kotsay.  Both have ties to Cherington; Shelton coached in Toronto in 2018 and Cherington actually acquired Kotsay back in 2008 and 2009.  Shelton seems like the most likely candidate.

Furthermore, the team still needs to fill out the rest of their coaching staff.  The only coaching staff member that there has not been an update on is hitting coach Rick Eckstein.  It seems his fate will be left to the new manager.  Also, regardless of what Cherington’s title is the team will still need to bring in new front office personnel such as assistant General Managers, minor league directors, and other front-office positions.

The press conference to introduce Cherington will be at noon today.  It will be interesting to see how he is introduced and what is said about other potential positions that will be filled.  Also, what will Cherington say about the Pittsburgh Pirates direction over the next coming months and what will Cherington’s short-term and long-term goals be?  Be sure to check back later as we break down the press conference.