LAS VEGAS -- Pirates general manager Neal Huntington had his family's blessing. The Giants reached out earlier this offseason and expressed interest in making him their new president of baseball operations, sweeping him out of a smaller market and trusting him to run a franchise that won three World Series earlier this decade.
Huntington turned down the opportunity to pursue that job, which ultimately went to former Dodgers general manager Farhan Zaidi. It would have been a chance to move out west with a promotion and a larger budget, like former Rays executive Andrew Friedman did with the Dodgers. Why not take it? Huntington cited his "sense of commitment" to the Pirates and a "sense of excitement" about what's to come in Pittsburgh.
"I have nothing but respect and appreciation for the Giants and [CEO] Larry Baer, and the Giants are a great organization. They got a tremendous leader in Farhan," Huntington said Monday at the Winter Meetings. "The people that I have the opportunity to work with here, the opportunity to bring another World Series championship to the city of Pittsburgh, the opportunity to push this thing forward again, it was something that meant a lot and means a lot."
The Giants' pursuit of Huntington was first reported by MLB Network insider Ken Rosenthal, but Monday was the first time Huntington publicly acknowledged the situation. He didn't elaborate about how long he considered the opportunity, nor was he concerned with what the Giants' interest says about his standing in the industry.
"What it means, I don't know," Huntington said. "But it means that I want to be a Pirate."
Huntington, the Pirates' general manager since September 2007, led a rebuilding process that culminated with Pittsburgh's return to the postseason from 2013-15. The Bucs haven't made it back since then, going through two losing seasons before finishing 82-79 this past season.
Last September, the Pirates signed Huntington and manager Clint Hurdle to contract extensions through the 2021 season. Huntington feels like he has unfinished business in Pittsburgh.
"We had pushed this organization forward and were in a really good spot, and the appreciation for making baseball [in Pittsburgh] relevant again was something that we didn't take lightly," Huntington said. "And the [Andrew] McCutchen trade and the [Gerrit] Cole trade that I made a year ago, we cut some of those bonds that we had begun to reestablish."
Huntington twice mentioned the McCutchen and Cole trades, which were not received well by fans, when explaining his loyalty to the Pirates.
"To put [chairman] Bob Nutting in the situation I put Bob in last January, trading Andrew McCutchen and Gerrit Cole, those were baseball decisions that 98 percent of our fanbase isn't going to believe were baseball decisions," Huntington said. "There was a sense of commitment to this organization, to Bob, to [team president Frank Coonelly], because of the damage that I did in making those decisions.
"A sense of excitement about this group and where we're headed and the young players that we had at that point in time, the young players that we have coming, the change in the international market, the progress that we're making in the Draft, the progress that we're making in development. I felt like we were moving in a really good direction and I wanted to see that through."