Pirates President Frank Coonelly Resigns

The Pirates and their team President, Frank Coonelly, have parted ways.

The Pirates announced Wednesday that team President, Frank Coonelly, and the organization are parting ways. Both Coonelly and Bob Nutting have described this move as mutual.

Coonelly, who has been with the team since 2007, was emotional as he addressed the media. He expressed disappointment in how this season turned out and indicated that the poor results were what lead to this decision.

As we worked through a comprehensive assessment of everything that we do, I undertook an honest self-evaluation. While not an easy conclusion to reach, I ultimately decided that the best interests of the Pirates would be served if the club had a new leader who would bring new ideas and a new direction. I have been blessed to have had the opportunity to lead this storied franchise in this great city for the last 12 years. I will forever be grateful to Bob and the entire Nutting family for giving me this incredible opportunity to serve. I am grateful as well for the opportunity to work with the highly talented and dedicated women and men who have worked for the Pirates during my time here. Whatever level of success we were able to achieve during this time was the direct result of their dedication to the organization and its fans.

Pirates' owner, Bob Nutting, also weighed in on the move. He expressed his gratitude to the years of service Coonelly gave to the team and the city of Pittsburgh, but was clear that new leadership was needed to propel the franchise forward.

This leadership transition gives us the opportunity to refresh our entire operations. Internally, the organization is energized as we prepare to introduce our new president on Monday, while we continue to work to identify a new field manager and build our coaching staff.

After a terrible 2019 season, firings were expected. While this move is being called mutual, and it probably was, Coonelly's alignment with it doesn't change the fact that it was likely to happen regardless.

Nutting is right. A change of leadership is necessary, and team President is a fine place to start. It probably isn't the end.

Pirates fans everywhere are no doubt aligned in thinking that it should be Neal Huntington who goes next. Dejan Kovacevic of DkPittsburghSports.com rightly pointed out that Nutting said there is a need to "refresh our entire operations." That phrase should have jumped out to everyone who follows the Pirates - especially in light of the comments Nutting made in support of Huntington and his team after the Clint Hurdle firing.

This move, along with Nutting's corresponding comments, seem to indicate Huntington isn't as safe as we once thought.

An announcement will be Monday on who will take over as the next team President.

The fallout of that announcement will be even more interesting than the announcement itself.