Hurdle has Pirates on wrong track with his head-hunting approach

Clint Hurdle is one of the more lovable baseball managers, with his booming voice and smiling face, even with the incessant bubblegum being smacked by his jaws.  He’s known for taking fatherly care of his Pittsburgh Pirates. At 64 he’s been able to keep up with the times, embracing sabermetrics and nutrition and emphasizing the value of sleep.  The team makes room on the chartered flights for each player’s favorite pillow.

Hurdle has had notable successes, directing the Colorado Rockies to the World Series in 2007 and the Pirates to the playoffs in 2013.  It was Pittsburgh’s first postseason since 1992, and he was named Manager of the Year for that feat. He’s in his ninth season steering the Pirates.  Only Bruce Bochy in San Francisco and Ned Yost in Kansas City have longer tenures managing one team. 

But in the category of What Have You Done for Us Lately, Hurdle is not doing well.  He’s heading for his fifth losing season out of the nine. Since 2015 he’s won 47% of his games.  He’s never won a division title. The Pirates are reeling through a historically miserable season.  Since the All-Star break they’re the worst team in the major leagues: 4-24.

A manager’s primary responsibility is to establish a winning culture.  More specifically, he must induce self-discipline by the players.  

One reason Hurdle was sought for two decades by the sport’s top executives is that he’s successfully battled his own demons: alcoholism that contributed to two divorces.  He’s a proponent of Alcoholics Anonymous, and he’s been credited – quietly – for leading troubled young ballplayers to mental health.

But he recently failed with a treasured prospect, Jung-ho Kang.  The Pirates in 2015 paid the Korean Baseball Organization $5 million for the transfer rights to Kang and then signed the  infielder, 27 at the time, to a 4-year, $11 million contract.

Kang was a metrics achiever in his first two seasons for Pittsburgh, with OPS of .816 and .867 and Wins Above Replacement of 4.0 and 2.3, respectively.

But troubles surfaced in 2016.  In July of that year a Chicago woman accused him of sexual assault, although she refused to assist prosecutors, so no charges were brought.  

In December 2016, Kang was found guilty in South Korea of a third drunk-driving violation.  

Consequently, he was denied a work visa to play for the Pirates.  He did not rejoin the club until September 2018.

Kang was no help to the Pirates this season, batting .169 with 10 home runs in 185 plate appearances.  He was released on Aug. 5, his big-league career probably over. It’s unfair to blame Hurdle for the Kang catastrophe, but it diminishes the manager’s reputation of being tightly connected to his players, of being the guiding hand.

Of more concern is Hurdle’s persistently pushing an overly aggressive style of play.  His team is notorious for head-hunting — “thuggery,” bellows ESPN’s Mike Wilbon. Hurdle was the instigator of one of the most unsettling brawls in the sport’s long and violent history.  In a July 30 game in Cincinnati he ordered pitcher Keone Kela to punish Derek Dietrich for excessive home-run celebration that happened during a game back in May.

In the vast volume of Unwritten Rules of Baseball, isn’t there a statute of limitations on revenge?  

When Dietrich pinch-hit on July 30, Kela’s first pitch missed the batter’s head by about four inches.  A full-scale brawl ensued, followed by 40 games of suspensions. An Ohio prosecutor threatened Kela with assault charges should this sort of thing happen again.

Hurdle got off lightly with a two-game ban.  But he drew scrutiny from media and the commissioner’s office.  From now on his pitchers will get no slack if their inside game results in an injured batsman. 

Hey, Clint, this is not 1989, when Danny Darwin’s 93 mph was exceptional.  Most middle relievers now throw harder than that. You’re endangering lives.

So Hurdle’s leadership has become dubious.  Which is not to blame him for the Pirates’ demise.  Fingers should point to cheapskate owner Robert Nutting and his error-prone general manager, Neal Huntington.

Rather than build around two of baseball’s most esteemed stars, center fielder Andrew McCutchen and laser-throwing Gerrit Cole, Nutting in 2017 ordered Huntington to trade them.  

Huntington did OK moving McCutchen to San Francisco for Kyle Crick, Bryan Reynolds and $500,000 that the billionaire owner easily could have done without.  Crick, 26, has become a solid set-up reliever for one of baseball’s most reliable closers, Felipe Vazquez. Reynolds, 24-year-old switch-hitting left fielder, shows All-Star probability, with his .925 OPS and 3.3 WAR so far this season.

But in exchange for Cole, who’s contending for a Cy Young Award with the Houston Astros, Huntington collected mediocre pitchers Joe Musgrove and Michael Feliz, light-hitting center fielder Jason Martin and a very average third baseman, Colin Moran, who replaced Kang.

Even worse: the trade of center fielder Austin Meadows (McCutchen’s successor), pitcher Tyler Glasnow and a developing arm, Shane Baz, to Tampa Bay for would-be ace Chris Archer.  

Meadows, 24, made this year’s All-Star team.  Glasnow, 25, would have, with his 6-1 record and 1.86 ERA, but is sidelined until September with a strained forearm. 

Meanwhile, Archer is a colossal flop, 3-8 with a 5.23 ERA.  He’s losing velocity at 30, and his contract has the Pirates on the hook for $8 million next year and the year after.

So the proud franchise of Honus Wagner, Roberto Clemente, Bill Mazeroski and Willie Stargell is reduced to irrelevancy, Nutting and nothingness. 

The Pirates are unlikely to be in the playoffs without new ownership and a new general manager.  Hurdle is not the main obstacle. But a young, rebuilding team needs more direction than he’s providing at this point in his career.  It may be time for this Pirate to walk the plank.