Pirates officially extend Huntington, Hurdle

The Pirates have officially announced that they’ve extended the contracts of general manager Neal Huntington and manager Clint Hurdle by four years. Both were operating in the last year of their existing contracts, with the team holding options on both for next year. They now are both under contract to the Pirates through 2021.

Hurdle’s extension is not news. Huntington’s isn’t, really, either, given that the contract terms for both were already co-extensive.

Considering that Huntington’s job performance has been the main topic of discussion here for two years ever, there’s probably little point in me summarizing the pros and cons of this deal. Nothing I can say will be new to anybody. I guess we can all just wonder whether the Pirates extended the 2013-15 version of their GM, who came up with a variety of innovative means of addressing the team’s needs, or the 2016-17 version, who did little or nothing to address glaring holes in the roster.