Former Pirates GM Neil Huntington was interviewed on the Foul Territory Podcast on back in January. Huntington was fired by Bob Nutting on October 28, 2019. Ben Cherington was hired as his replacement.
Here is a link to the interview on YouTube The Harsh Reality of being a Small-Market GM | Neal Huntington . If you have not listened to it yet, I highly recommend it.
Neil Huntington is now with the Cleveland Guardians, but it seemed most of the interview was tailored to his time with the Pirates and with Small Market Teams in general.
Here are some highlights from the interview.
Neil Huntington mentioned he is open to a new GM role, but he likes his current position with Cleveland as a special assistant to baseball projects.
He admits challenges to signing free agents to supplement a core to complete. Erik Kratz, also a former Pirates was part of the interview panel and kicked off the conversation about alternative strategies small market teams take in order to compete. They emphasised the people in the organization. Every team starts from the same foundation. It is the local revenue that makes the financial inequalities. So how can small markets complete? Neil responds with processes and people. The process is exhaustive. Sourcing and hiring staff members. Cleveland is very particular with their hiring process to hire the best staff for them. Sound familiar? It should because Cherington basically glorifies his process that hasn't produced results yet.
Neil also went over his tenure with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Neil said he did not do a good enough job because he was fired, but is proud to the brief window of winning that happened. He mentioned a friend said he would have been better taking a job for an expansion team rather than the Pirates. They tried to retool without rebuilding and it didn't work.
Erik asked about a specific dollar figure for acquiring a needed acquisition when Neil was with the Pirates. Neil basically bypassed the question saying market size is a real factor, the margin for error is smaller, stretching the dollar, and they focused on working inside their parameters. Another question came up about why can't Pittsburgh even spend 20 million on a player in free agency? No one believes they can't at this point with the higher revenues now, but the organization acts like they can't. Neil responded with equity in the clubs value not being an avenue to spend. He said most owners who are willing to spend to deficits are more willing to sell. He mentioned Cleveland is willing to deficit spend for short periods of time.
They also compared success in Pittsburgh vs success in Cleveland. Specifically why can't Pittsburgh compete like Cleveland does? Neil mentioned that Cleveland and Tampa didn't need to do a full teardown. Cleveland has had a good front office for a while and didn't need a full teardown.