Pirates manager Clint Hurdle gave himself a vote of confidence Wednesday before the team took on the Chicago Cubs, telling The Athletic that he “received assurance” he would be back for 10th season.
“We had a nice season last year. We had some optimism,” Hurdle told The Athletic. “This year has been a punch-back. You hope — just because of the athletic competitor and fighter in you — you’ll have every opportunity to push back through this with the group, a large group of men that will be back, with ownership and (team president) Frank (Coonelly), to do it together.”
But the statement general manager Neal Huntington issued during the game was the equivalent of ESPN’s Lee Corso saying “Not so fast, my friend.”
“As we have in the past, we will publicly address any personnel decisions at the end of the season,” Huntington’s statement said.
Hurdle must’ve read Huntington’s words, because the manager had a more subdued tone after the Pirates’ 4-2 win against the Cubs.
“Every conversation I’ve had with Neal is how we come back and get better,” Hurdle said. “My mind says I want to come back. I plan on coming back. The opportunity for us to improve and get better is important to me as well as everybody I’ve had that conversation with.”
Hurdle took more than 20 minutes to get to the podium to talk to reporters after Wednesday’s game. The customary wait time is a 10-minute cooling off period. Hurdle also didn’t give a direct answer when asked who assured him that he would be returning.
“You know what, I’m just going to pass on all that, because it’s taken on its own little story here,” Hurdle said. “My intent, my desire is to manage this team next year. I don’t want anybody to mis-read, or I don’t want to mis-represent. I plan on being back. The conversations we have — Neal and I are planning for the future.”
Hurdle was asked again about his job status and gave a short reply of “That’s what I got for you” before ending the press conference.
Hurdle led the Pirates to three playoff appearances from 2013-15, but the team entered Wednesday’s game 23 games out of first place in the National League Central Division.
He believes the team can get back to the form the Pirates saw during those playoff appearances. Maybe he’s right. He’s had successes in his career, including taking the Colorado Rockies to the World Series in 2007.
But it’s hard to ignore the way the Pirates are going, especially when they were 2½ games out of first place at the All-Star break.
Besides the losses, there have been at least three reported altercations with either players and staff or teammates fighting each other. Hurdle told reporters he wasn’t concerned about team chemistry in San Francisco after the fight between Kyle Crick and Felipe Vazquez. He did, however, express concern about the altercations.
“I have concerns about three individual incidents that have gone on this year. I’ve been here nine years and we’ve had none,” Hurdle said. “Now we’ve had three this year — two that resulted in suspensions and one that had fines involved. We’ve spoken to the club today. We had a conversation. We revisited internally as a family about how we meet challenges and rise above them.”
Pirates players, like many others, seemed to find out about the story as it began to circulate on social media. Pitcher Joe Musgrove was one of the few players left in the clubhouse by the time reporters were done with Hurdle’s media availability.
“We haven’t heard anything. We have no idea,” Musgrove said. “We saw all the stuff on Twitter. As far we know a decision hasn’t been made. I have no issues with Clint at all. If he’s back, then he’s back. That decision isn’t under my control, so I can’t be too concerned about it.”
Nubyjas Wilborn: nwilborn@post-gazette.com and Twitter @nwilborn19
First Published: September 26, 2019, 12:33 a.m.
Updated: September 26, 2019, 3:47 a.m.
