The Pittsburgh Pirates will keep general manager Neil Huntington, along with his assistants, for the 2013 season despite a collapse leading to the team missing the playoffs again, leading to debate among Pirates fans about whether or not he should have been fired.
Charlie Wilmoth over at Bucs Dugout said he could go "either way" about the decision to hold on to Huntington. Pat Lackey at the Pirates site Where Have You Gone Andy Van Slyke felt the same way, first saying why the team should keep Huntington - the team has gone from a disaster to a near-contender under Huntington, if it wasn't for some late collapse - then making the case that Huntington should be gone.
After five years on the job, what do the Pittsburgh Pirates have to show for the Neal Huntington era? Nothing. He dismantled (Dave) Littlefield's mediocre Pirate teams in hopes of building a winner sooner, and instead his 2010 Pirates lost 105 games. Since then, Andrew McCutchen and Neil Walker have done a ton of heavy lifting on these near-contender Pirates, and he didn't draft either one of them. Almost all of his trades have been disasters.
Obviously, Huntington is a divisive figure in the Pirates community - they'll have another year to debate his value to the club, as the decision to keep him around has already been made.