1. 新聞來源：
mlbtraderumors
2. 新聞標題：
Pirates Fire Clint Hurdle
Ray Searage Expecting To Be Fired
3. 新聞內容：
By George Miller | September 29, 2019 at 12:49pm CDT
The Pirates have fired manager Clint Hurdle, according to a report from Ken
Rosenthal of The Athletic. Hurdle had two years remaining on his current
contract.
As Rosenthal notes, general manager Neal Huntington will retain his position
spearheading the organization’s baseball operations. Meanwhile, the coaching
staff will be determined by the incoming manager.
The move comes as something of a surprise, as just days earlier Hurdle
himself asserted that the Pirates assured him that he’d keep his position as
the club’s manager. However, later that day both Hurdle and Huntington were
curiously noncommittal on the future of the skipper.
Hurdle, 62, was installed as the Pittsburgh manager prior to the 2011 season
and finishes his Pirates career as the fourth-winningest manager in franchise
history. He’s led his Pirates teams to an overall 735-720-1 record in his
nine years at the helm, including three consecutive postseason appearances
from 2013-2015. The team peaked with 94- and 98-win seasons in 2013 and 2015,
though they were unable to make it out of the Division Series in that
three-year stretch—and, in 2014 and 2015, they were eliminated in the
one-game playoff.
Not far removed from that stretch of success, this season has been an
especially trying one in Pittsburgh. After winning 82 games a year ago, the
club has taken a step backwards and will have a final chance today to reach
the 70-win plateau. Between a clubhouse altercation involving Kyle Crick and
Felipe Vazquez, numerous on-field brawls, and a suspension to Keone Kela for
a confrontation with a coach, it would seem that the clubhouse has escaped
Hurdle’s control.
Whether he’s at fault for those off-field issues is questionable, but the
on-field results haven’t done Hurdle any favors. His Pirates found
themselves just a game under .500 at the All-Star break, but proceeded to hit
a colossal cold spell en route to a 4-24 stretch into mid-August.
Pittsburgh will join the Giants, Padres, and Cubs among the teams now with a
vacant manager position. It seems that wholesale changes to the coaching
staff may be in order, with pitching coach Ray Searage among those with an
uncertain future. Huntington issued the following statement regarding the
decision:
Words cannot express how much respect and appreciation I have for Clint as a
person and a leader … We will be forever grateful for his dedication to the
Pirates organization on and off the field … As an organization, we believe
it was time for a managerial change to introduce a new voice and new
leadership inside the clubhouse.
By Dylan A. Chase | September 29, 2019 at 5:44pm CDT
Pirates pitching coach Ray Searage–perhaps one of the most lauded
professionals of his vocation in recent memory–informed Jason Mackey of the
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that he is expecting to be fired by his organization
in short order (link).
After manager Clint Hurdle received a Pittsburgh pink slip this afternoon,
Searage’s removal from his pitching coach role would represent a substantial
dugout makeover. The Pirates have given no official indication of their
coaching plans, but they have informed Searage that a decision on his future
is impending. “They told us they would let us know in the next couple of
days,” Searage told Rob Biertempfel of The Athletic (link). “Now, bringing
in a new manager could mean bringing in different personnel, anyway. I’m
preparing myself not to be a Pittsburgh Pirate next year.”
If the Pirates do indeed remove Searage from his post, it would mark the end
of an inarguably successful chapter in his career. After a playing career in
which he logged seven MLB seasons as a hurler, Searage was named Pittsburgh’
s pitching coach in August of 2010–meaning that his tenure has basically
lock stepped with Hurdle’s nine-year run with the org.
During his time in black and yellow, Searage earned himself a
near-mythological reputation as a pitching whisperer. J.A. Happ, Francisco
Liriano, A.J. Burnett are just a few examples of veterans who revived their
careers under Searage’s tutelage in the Steel City, and Gerrit Cole, perhaps
the sport’s best pitcher circa 2019, began his career as a Searage
understudy. Industry-wide respect for Searage was so pronounced following the
Pirates 2013-2015 run of success that, in 2016, Sports Illustrated once went
so far as to call him “the secret to the Pirates’ success”.
Of course, Searage’s time in Pittsburgh hardly culminated in a storybook
ending. Although Pirates pitchers spent the least time on the injured list
among all National League teams from 2014-2015, Searage probably made much
more frequent trips to the training room in recent years. Jameson Taillon,
Trevor Williams, Chris Archer, and Jordan Lyles all spent time on the injured
list this year–and that’s not the only list that was pertinent to Pirates
pitchers in 2019.
Under Searage’s instruction, Pirates pitchers often worked up-and-in in 2019
–a strategy that helped fuel a few on-field brawls, the most notable of
which was a Pittsburgh-Cincinnatti duel that resulted in pitchers Kyle Crick
and Keone Kela being placed on the suspended list. Crick was later engaged in
a clubhouse scuffle with Felipe Vazquez that resulted in Crick needing
surgery and both players being levied with fines. This month, Vazquez was
shockingly arrested on charges of, among other things, statutory sexual
assault of a minor. That Searage would conclude his time in Pittsburgh with
such a top-to-bottom disaster of a season would be, in a word, lamentable.
4. 新聞連結：
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2019/09/pirates-fire-clint-hurdle.html
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2019/09/ray-searage-expecting-to-be-fired.html
5. 備註：
(1) 根據知名記者Ken Rosenthal的消息指出，海盜隊宣布解聘總教練Clint Hurdle，原本
的合約還剩兩年；雖然海盜隊尚未正式決定未來的教練計畫，但預計投手教練Ray Searage
也會離隊，由新任總教練決定投手教練人選，棒球總管Neal Huntington則繼續留任。
(2) Neal Huntington對解聘一事發表聲明：「無法用言語表達我對Hurdle作為一個領導者
的尊重和讚賞，我們將永遠感激他對海盜隊場上的奉獻，身為球團的一份子，我們認為是
時候進行教練團的調整 對球團注入新的聲音和領導風格。」
(3) Ray Searage表示：「球團告訴我近期會有通知，現在有個新總教練也意味著不同的
教練陣容，我已經調適好來年不在海盜隊的準備。」
(4) Ray Searage過去幾年執教的成果，讓他在投教圈中有近神話般的評價，2014-15期間
海盜隊投手群是所有國聯在IL天數最少的球隊，2016年SI更評論他為海盜隊成功的關鍵，
例如幾位老將如J.A. Happ、Francisco Liriano、A.J. Burnett經過調整後表現精采，
Gerrit Cole生涯起步階段也有著成功的表現。當然，神話也有終結的一天，近年來海盜的
投手群頻頻因為傷勢問題進入傷兵名單，Ray Searage也因此疲於往返訓練室。
(5) 從幾個跡象能看出Clint Hurdle已難以掌控球員的狀況，像是Kyle Crick跟Felipe
Vazquez的吵架事件、球賽中的衝突不斷、Keone Kela與教練團有不合的狀況等等；另一方
面，球隊的戰績也從去年的82勝跌至今年的69勝，明星賽前的戰績是44-45，但自此到八月
中卻繳出4-24的成績。
(5) 目前大聯盟有總教練職缺的球隊：海盜、巨人、教士、小熊、皇家。
(6) Clint Hurdle生涯執掌球隊的成績表現：
W L W-L% 執教年數 季後賽成績(W-L,%) 備註
Rockies 2002-2009 534 625 .461 8 7-4, 0.636 1個國聯冠軍
Pirates 2011-2019 735 720 .505 9 3-5, 0.375
TOT 1269 1345 .485 17 10-9, 0.526 1個國聯冠軍