Clint Hurdle may have a chance to guide the Pittsburgh Pirates to another last-place finish next season.
Hurdle told The Athletic’s Stephen J. Nesbitt that he has been told by the Pirates he will be back as manager next year. Hurdle is 62 and will be entering his 10th season as Pirates manager. If both Bruce Bochy and Ned Yost step away as expected, that would leave Hurdle as the manager with the longest current tenure with the same team.
Hurdle is optimistic about returning and still wants to win a championship.
“I’d love to win a World Series ring before I no longer am in uniform. That hourglass has been flipped over. I’m 62. You know? I have more than enough left in me to fulfill the contract, if that works out, to manage another two seasons. That’s not even a question in my mind,” Hurdle told Nesbitt.
Even though I joked about the last-place finish, Hurdle deserves to be back. The Pirates were consistently awful until he got there. They won 94 games or more twice under him and made the playoffs three straight years — their first postseason trips since 1992. Even last year’s team went a respectable 82-79.
The Pirates are in a tough division with better teams like the Cubs, Cardinals and Brewers. Their roster is not as strong as those of their competitors, and you can’t put the blame on Hurdle for that. He generally does a good job with what he’s given.
