Former GM Reminisces About Pirates Tenure

The Pittsburgh Pirates haven't found much success over the past 30 years, but when they did, it was under Neal Huntington's watch.
Hired as the franchise's general manager in September 2007, Huntington had his hands full immediately upon stepping into the role. At the time, the Pirates had not won 80 or more games in a single season or made the playoffs since 1992 while also coming off three-straight sub-70 win campaigns.
With the organization in disarray, Huntington and the rest of the front office understood that a rebuild was necessary in order to pave a path towards sustainable success in the future.
In an interview on the Foul Territory podcast, he provided a rundown of his tenure with Pittsburgh and explained how it eventually returned to prominence after a rough start.
"We had the three-year rebuild [2008-2010], and people forget that in [2011] we were competitive deep into August and then had an abysmal September," Huntington said. "We did the same thing in [2012], and then year six is 2013. One of the most special moments I think I'll ever experience professionally was the Wild Card game in Pittsburgh, and had a three-year run [2013-2015] where I think we had the second- or third-best record in baseball. The problem is the [St. Louis] Cardinals were one of the teams that were ahead of us and we just couldn't find our way around them."
As Huntington stated, Pittsburgh took things down to the studs and finished with a combined record of 186-299 from '08 to '10. Late-season collapses prevented the Pirates from reaching the playoffs in '11 and '12, though playing meaningful baseball late in the year was a welcome development for the club that would pay dividends down the line.
Pittsburgh finally broke into the postseason in '13 with a 94-68 record, defeating the Cincinnati Reds in the National League Wild Card Game at PNC Park before bowing out in five games against the Cardinals during the Division Series. Andrew McCutchen was named National League MVP that year with a .911 OPS, 21 home runs and 27 stolen bases while former No. 1 overall pick Gerrit Cole dazzled with a 3.22 ERA in 19 starts as a rookie.
The Pirates would host the Wild Card Game in both '14 and '15 as well after posting a combined 186-138 record, though they'd lose in both instances to the San Francisco Giants and Chicago Cubs, respectively.
The rest of Huntington's stint with Pittsburgh didn't go quite as swimmingly, however, as it failed to get back to the playoffs over the following four seasons while he traded both McCutchen and Cole before being fired in October 2019.
"Rolled things out there in '16 and '17," Huntington said. "It didn't work, so we shifted gears, tried to shift things up and traded some players nearing the end of their time under contract in Pittsburgh, and it didn't work. We tried to retool without rebuilding, and it didn't work, and that's why I'm sitting here today."
Former Boston Red Sox GM Ben Cherington became Huntington's successor, and while he still holds that post heading into the 2025 campaign, the Pirates are 294-414 with no postseason appearances since he's come to town.
Currently a special assistant in the Cleveland Guardians' front office, Huntington shared that while he wishes the franchise was more prosperous during his stay, he remains proud of everything he accomplished.
"I wished he had found a way to win more games, certainly in October, but over the course of the years," Huntington said. "It didn't end well, but I am incredibly proud of a lot of the things that we did there."