Pirates manager Clint Hurdle is signed through the 2017 season with a club option for the ’18 season. The Pirates have not approached Hurdle about a contract extension that would keep him in town beyond that, Rob Biertempfel of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports.
In six seasons under Hurdle’s leadership, the Pirates have gone 509-462 (.524) with three consecutive playoff appearances from 2013-15. Their ’13 appearance ended a 21-year playoff drought, but they ultimately lost to the Cardinals in five games in the NLDS.
Hurdle, a baseball lifer, has been praised for his willingness to work with a front office under GM Neal Huntington that has been among the most statistically-inclined. The Pirates’ reliance on statistics has led to an abundance of shifts, a trend that has become more and more popular in baseball.
Biertempfel suggests that, if the Pirates choose to move on from Hurdle after the 2017 season, bench coach Tom Prince could be the next in command. Prince managed the Williamsport Crosscutters (short-season Single-A) in 2005-06, which was then the Pirates’ minor league affiliate. He managed the Pirates’ Gulf Coast League team in 2007. In 2014, he managed the Pirates’ advanced Single-A team in Bradenton and was promoted to manage Double-A Altoona the next season.