The Pittsburgh Pirates named Neal Huntington as their new general manager today, nearly 3 weeks after firing Dave Littlefield. A delay in the announcement had fueled speculation they were backing away from Huntington as their first choice. His jobs in Cleveland as special assistant to Indians GM Mark Shapiro had included advance scouting and strategic planning.
"Neal comes from an extremely successful organization in Cleveland," Pirates president Frank Coonelly told MLB.com. "Neal has been part of a system that is very similar to the Pittsburgh market, and they utilized all these different avenues of player acquisition, I think extraordinarily well, and Neal is to receive credit for that." (More Pittsburgh Pirates stories.)