Pittsburgh Pirates News: More Changes in the Font Office

The Pittsburgh Pirates overhauled the bulk of their Front Office during last offseason.  Apparently, they felt there were move moves that needed to be made.

Last year, the Pittsburgh Pirates hired Ben Cherington in mid-November.  This was one of the last MLB General Manager jobs available.  The point is valid because it explains why Cherington blamed the lack of change on the pure fact that he felt like he was behind the curve of the offseason.  Many thought he would make a lot more trades and roster moves than the very limited amount he did.  This is not to say he was going to be aggressive, but the thought was that more veterans than just Starling Marte would have been traded.

The fact that Cherington did not make a lot of moves shows that he believes that turning the Pittsburgh Pirates around will be more of a process than a quick change. He wanted to come in, evaluate the talent himself (along with his staff) and see what direction to move forward in.  For the most part, this is a pretty common practice for new General Managers.

In doing so, Cherington kept a good bit of other Front Office members around.  This list included Assistant General Manager Kevan Graves and Farm Director Larry Broadway.  While keeping Graves around made sense, many questioned why Broadway was being retained.  After all, Broadway often received a lot of the blame for the prospect development issues under Neal Huntington.  It still made sense however, as both Graves and Broadway would be two of the people to know the most about the big league roster and what is down on the farm.

In fact, it was reported that the reason Cherington, and presumably team President Travis Williams, were keeping some of those faces around was to help with the transition.  Now that the new regime’s first season in Pittsburgh is complete, more changes have been made to the Front Office.  According to Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Pittsburgh Pirates have already made some changes to their Front Office:

Ben Cherington also shed some light on the Pittsburgh Pirates plans for Larry Broadway, who despite losing his position as the Farm Director, will be kept as part of the Front Office.  Cherington partially explained his plan for Broadway to Kevin Gorman of the Pittsburgh Tribune Review:

“I think there will be some reorganization in player development, an area that we may see some adjustments in terms of leadership,” Cherington said on a conference call. “Larry and I have talked about that and look forward to working with him. He’s got a ton of talent.

These moves all make sense for the Pittsburgh Pirates.  Broadway was the biggest name of the group.  It is good to see him stick around, as he is considered to be a very bright baseball mind. However, it clearly was not working with him being in charge of the minors and development.  To get someone else in that position the team should hopefully see a different result than they have.

The head athletic trainer and strength coach getting fired should not be much of a surprise either.  The Bucs have dealt with a lot of injuries over the last few years and once again making a change should only help.  Nick Leyva is the other name mentioned, who has been with the Bucs in multiple roles since 2011.