Neal Huntington

Neal Alden Huntington (born February 4, 1969) is the 12th person to serve as General Manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates Major League Baseball organization. He was named to the position on September 25, 2007 by new Pirates President Frank Coonelly.

A native of Amherst, New Hampshire, Huntington is a graduate of Milford Area Senior High and Amherst College, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in psychology in 1991. At Amherst, Huntington played baseball for four years; he was named a Division III second-team All-American first baseman and first-team All New England first baseman after his senior season. He earned a Master's Degree in sport management from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Huntington spent 16 seasons in professional baseball prior to joining the Pirates. He became Assistant Director of Player Development with the Montreal Expos in 1995. He later moved to the Cleveland Indians, by whom he was employed for 10 seasons, serving first as the Assistant Director of Minor League Operations before becoming Director of Player Development (in 1998), Assistant General Manager (2002–2004), and finally Special Assistant to the General Manager (2006–2007).

Within two weeks of assuming the Pirates GM position, Huntington made several decisive moves on October 5, 2007: field manager Jim Tracy was fired; the remaining coaching staff was given notice that their contracts would likely not be renewed; and the Senior Director of Player Development, the scouting director, and the Director of Baseball Operations were also let go. These moves cleared the decks to introduce a wholly fresh approach to scouting, player development, and field management in the Pirates organization.

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