After Pirates owner Bob Nutting made it clear in a statement during the firing of manager Clint Hurdle that General Manager Neal Huntington was safe for next season and in the weeks after it appeared quite clear Huntington was safe in the obvious that he as the front-man in leading the manager search, which included a second round of interviews last week.

Yet, Bob Nutting on the eve of hiring Travis Williams as the new Team President has shocked the industry in informing Huntington during a meeting on Sunday afternoon that Huntington was being let-go as General Manager with two years left on his contract.

Nutting has shocked the baseball world and Pirates fan base in the fact he will eat over $10 million dollars for Hurdle and Huntington not to the work for him over the next two seasons.

It was a strange 4 weeks in getting here but the fan base gets their wish as Nutting has officially cleaned house.

With the fresh start, all eyes now turn to Travis Williams, the President of Business Operations for the New York Islanders who has no experience running a baseball organization. Williams comes with a great reputation from his eight seasons in the Penguins organization as the Chief Operating Officer where he oversaw all aspects of the day-to-day business and arena operations for the club.

The payroll issue is never going to change under Nutting but for anything to change moving forward, Williams a hockey and business guy by trait, has to get lucky here and hit a home run with the GM hire in this becoming an organization that excels in drafting and developing talent on all levels. It was the biggest Achilles heel of the Frank Coonelly/Neal Huntington era and the primary reason the three year run (2013-2015) was not sustained.

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