Neal Huntington didn’t mince words in defending his first baseman Thursday.
In an appearance on 93.7 The Fan’s “P.M. Team” with hosts Andrew Fillipponi and Chris Mueller, the Pirates general manager blasted an anonymous scout for his appraisal of Josh Bell in a preview produced by Sports Illustrated earlier this month.
“Josh Bell can’t play,” the scout wrote when asked to name the club’s most overrated player. “He’s not a good defender. He’s a big lump. He has bad agility, bad footwork. He can’t run. Supposedly he’s a big power threat, but he hit 12 home runs at first base. This is not a kid! This is his third year in the big leagues! I don’t think he’s got the ability to get better.”
Bell finished third in NL Rookie of the Year voting after hitting .273 with 26 homers and an .800 OPS in 2017. That promising campaign was followed by a sophomore slump last year, when he hit .261/.768 and saw his homer total more than cut in half.
Still, Huntington thought the scout’s comments were way off the mark and suggested they were racially motivated. Discussion of the topic starts at the 5:00-minute mark of the embedded audio.
“Anonymous scouts are hacks,” Huntington said. “They drive me crazy. Read the other previews and there’s a lot of criticism of other teams’ players. Most tend to happen to be minorities, which is scathing in and of itself. But it’s not just Pirates players. It’s kind of all over the board, and sensationalism sells. And I think it’s a shame. I really think it’s a shame for our game that that is what plays out.
“Josh Bell is a very talented athlete. We believe that he’s going to turn into that hitter with power. And he’s continuing to get better at first base.”
Asked to clarify who he thought the comments were coming from, Huntington doubled down.
“They’re hacks, and I don’t care,” he added. “I’m glad they don’t work for us.”
Adam Bittner: abittner@post-gazette.com and Twitter @fugimaster24.
First Published: March 28, 2019, 9:05 p.m.