Neal Huntington, Pirates Agree To Three-Year Extension

Jenifer Langosch tweets that general manager Neal Huntington and the Pirates have agreed to a three-year extension, plus a team option on the 2015 season.

As I wrote at Bucs Dugout on Friday, I think Huntington deserves an extension, but a three-year deal seems to reflect a degree of confidence that I'm not sure Huntington has earned. Huntington inherited an utterly dysfunctional organization and now has it in decent working order, and he should get the chance to see the fruits of his labor.

On the other hand, the Pirates' farm system still wasn't in great shape until an unprecedented draft spending binge last month, and last season's ugly offseason (in which the Pirates handed major-league contracts to Lyle Overbay, Matt Diaz, Scott Olsen and Kevin Correia, with Correia being the only one still with the team) wasn't a point in Huntington's favor, either. He's done a pretty good job clearing away a lot of his predecessor's mess, but the next step is more difficult, and it's not yet clear if Huntington is the right person to do it.