-P- The Post-Gazette reports that pitching coach John Farrell isn't likely to take the Pirates' manager job. Instead, the Pirates may look at Indians third base coach Joel Skinner or White Sox bench coach Joey Cora. They may have also interviewed Indianapolis manager Trent Jewett. The AP reports that Neal Huntington will travel to New England this weekend, and may interview Farrell while he's there, so who knows. It sounds like no one actually knows what's going on.
Anyway, it sounds like the manager search isn't the first thing on Huntington's mind:
Huntington has focused a lot this week on hiring a scouting director and a minor-league director and could announce those decisions from Orlando.
Like WTM says, these positions are more important anyway. What the Pirates do at the major league level isn't likely to matter so much in the next couple of years. So these hires will be critical.
Speaking of minor league directors, Brian Graham has been hired by the Orioles as a special assignment coach. That's one honker of a demotion, and it says a lot about what the baseball world thinks about a guy who was generally regarded as one of the most competent people in the Pirates' previous front office. Also, John Shelby will coach first base for the O's.
-P- Chris Antonetti won't be the Cardinals' GM after all. Instead, St. Louis has promoted assistant GM John Mozeliak. Who knows what Antonetti's waiting for, but maybe he decided he wanted a better situation than the one in St. Louis, or maybe he's waiting for the job to open up in Cleveland. In any event, Antonetti removed himself from consideration.
-P- The Reds will keep Adam Dunn for one more year and $13 million, which is a good decision for them.
-P- Meanwhile, Kris Benson became a free agent when the O's declined his option.