Globe iconLogin iconRecap iconSearch iconTickets icon

Coonelly: Pirates won't make changes at the top

Team president issues statement supporting Huntingon, Hurdle and others

NEW YORK -- Despite the team's second consecutive late-season collapse, and criticism leveled toward some of the organization's unorthodox training methods for prospects, the Pirates will not be making any changes at the top of their organizational charts.

According to a statement issued Wednesday afternoon by Pittsburgh club president Frank Coonelly, general manager Neal Huntington, assistant general managers Kyle Stark and Greg Smith, and manager Clint Hurdle will all be back in 2013.

The full text of Coonelly's statement:

"For the second consecutive year, we put ourselves in an excellent position to meet our objective of winning our division but did not play nearly well enough during the last two months of the season to accomplish it. Our fans are understandably disappointed and frustrated, as is every individual in the organization.

"As soon as we finish this season as well as we possibly can, we will turn our full and total attention to evaluating why were unable to finish the job and what we must do differently to take the next step to becoming a championship team. There will unquestionably be changes made to the way in which we operate as a result of this thorough critical self-evaluation, but we will not be making personnel changes at the very top of our baseball operations department. Neal, Kyle, Greg and Clint are dedicated and intelligent baseball men in whom I have great confidence.

"Confidence in and support of Neal, Kyle and Greg should not be misunderstood with acceptance of another poor finish at the Major League level. We must understand why the quality of our execution and play deteriorated so markedly in August. Finishing was the focus from spring training but it certainly was not achieved."

Tom Singer is a reporter for MLB.com and writes an MLBlog Change for a Nickel. He can also be found on Twitter @Tom_Singer.