9:04 pm: Jeff Banister was one of those who fired the pirates, Mackey tweeted. Banister was once a player and coach in the organization, but recently worked as a special assistant in his main office. He is best known throughout the game for his career as a Rangers manager from 2015-18. Banister was also interviewed for the Astros’ managerial vacancy during the offseason, though that job went to Dusty Baker.
5:34 pm: The Pirates are making radical changes to both their business operations and baseball operations departments, reports Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. More than 25 members of the business operations team were fired yesterday, and up to 15 members of the baseball operations team were fired on Friday, he adds via Twitter.
Some of the employees who were laid off were already on leave and have now been told that they will not return. Those who were fired will keep their benefits until at least Oct. 31 and will receive severance packages, according to Mackey. Rob Biertempfel of Athletic reports (also via Twitter) that the 15 baseball operations employees who were fired will receive their wages and retain their benefits until October 31. The names are not known at this time, though Biertempfel adds that exploration director Joe DelliCarri and farm director Larry Broadway remain on staff.
Wide-ranging organizational changes are common after a reorganization of the central office, and that seemed particularly true in the case of the Pirates. Owner Bob Nutting cleaned the house after the 2019 season, albeit in a somewhat odd way. Manager Clint Hurdle was fired a few days after publicly declaring that he had been assured he would return in 2020. Pitching coach Ray Searage and bench coach Tom Prince were also expelled. He began a search for a new employer, led by GM Neal Huntington … until Nutting fired Huntington for nearly a month in the interview process.
Along the way, President Frank Coonelly and the club “mutually” agreed to separate. Travis Williams took over as team president, Ben Cherington was hired to replace his friend and former Indians colleague, and the club was eventually settled on by the Twins’ head coach Derek Shelton as their next manager.
The path taken to reach the end result was quite strange, but it was very clear that Nutting felt that a dramatic change was necessary. That now leaked into the operations department. The COVID-19 pandemic surely played a role in the mass layoffs, but substantial turnover always stood out as a possibility.
