Pirates Officially Hire Ben Cherington As New General Manager

PITTSBURGH, PA - The Pirates on Monday officially named Ben Cherington as the team's new general manager. He succeeds Neal Huntington, who was fired last month after 12 years on the job.

Cherington, 45, has more than 20 seasons of baseball operations experience, highlighted by 17 as a member of the Boston Red Sox, including four as executive vice president and general manager from 2011 until 2015.

Cherington's tenure in Boston included three last-place finishes and a World Series championship in 2013. He spent the past three seasons as the Toronto Blue Jays vice president of baseball operations and helped construct a minor league system rated by Baseball America as the industry's third best at the start of the 2019 season.

“Pittsburgh is the ideal opportunity for me,and the only one I was interested in exploring,” Cherington said. “The four pillars that will drive our success are elite talent identification, acquisition, development and deployment. My entire career has been spent focusing on developing great systems to be elite in these four critical areas, which will fuel our future success in Pittsburgh."

He added: “I have always appreciated the passion of Pittsburgh sports fans My sense is that Pirates fans appreciate hard work, honest effort, and people and players they can trust. All things that I can respect and identify with. My wife and I couldn’t be more excited to be a part of this community.”