Charlie has a long post up today about Neal Huntington’s extension and it’s reported length (three years). He compares the length to some other similar-type GMs, talks about Huntington’s performance thus far, and concludes that Huntington certainly deserves an extension to see his plan through, but that three years might be too long. I don’t really disagree with any of it and it’s basically what I said yesterday. I have some questions about some things that Huntington’s done, but he’s got the team in much better shape than it was when he got the job in 2007 and he should be allowed to see things through.
I understand Charlie’s point about the length of the deal, and he’s not wrong that GM contract lengths aren’t a big deal, nor is he wrong that three years is probably too many to go without reevaluating Huntington. I do want to add quickly, though, that I always get the impression when a guy in Huntington’s position gets a three year extension, that the deal is basically a two-year deal that’s announced for three to give some protection from lame-duck status after just one year.
Frank Coonelly obviously doesn’t care when the media makes a big deal about a GM not having an extension, but it was apparent before this year even began that Huntington wasn’t going to be fired this year even though 2011 was nominally the last year on his contract. We’re heading out of the phase in his career that that remains true, though. If Huntington were to get a two-year extension and the club were to have another losing season in 2012 (which is a strong possibility at this point), people would make a much bigger deal about his contract status in 2013 than they did this year, I think. He’d probably react to it a lot differently, too. If Huntington were truly working for his job this year, who knows how differently he might’ve handled the trade deadline?
In any case, that’s how I’m reading the report that this is a three year deal for Huntington: that he’s got two more years to do things his way without having to worry about being fired or not getting another extension. At that point, his continued employment by the Pirates will depend a lot more on on-field performance than it has to this point in his career.
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