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Clint Hurdle had to go. That should have been obvious to anyone who follows the Pirates and saw how this debacle of a season unfolded with infighting in the clubhouse and a horrendous collapse on the field in the second half.
Still, I was surprised to see Hurdle get fired Sunday. If only because of money.
You simply cannot talk about the small-market, small-payroll Pirates in any meaningful way without bringing up finances, and it surprises me that owner Bob Nutting decided to eat the $6 million still owed to Hurdle over the next two years.
It was clearly the right baseball move.
But it addressed only part of the Pirates' immense problems.
Another huge problem, general manager Neal Huntington, still has his job.
He shouldn't.
More on that and other issues in a bit.
With regards to Hurdle, all indications out of Pittsburgh are that he lost the team. His clubhouse devolved into chaos, with players fighting and bickering amongst themselves and/or coaches on three separate occasions.
The team, which has several good young players to build around, needs a new leader, a new voice.
Hurdle did some outstanding things for the Pirates, leading them out of the woeful 20-year losing streak and to three straight playoff appearances from 2013-15.
But he has never been a very good game manager. His rah-rah attitude could only go so far. And this core group of young players needs to be in an environment led by a manager who can get the best out of them and maintain control of the clubhouse.
Jeff Banister is the name you'll hear a lot in the coming days as Hurdle's potential replacement. Banister worked for the Pirates for more than two decades before serving as the Texas Rangers' manager from 2015-18, he's a tremendous and well respected baseball man, and he's a good age for the job at 55.
Banister served as a special assistant to Huntington this season. I can tell you that he spent time late in the season doing informal interviews with some minor league personnel in an effort to vet potential big league coaches should he ever get another managing job.
Bench coach Tom Prince should not be a viable option to replace Hurdle. Neither should third base coach Joey Cora, who like Prince is a former Curve manager. Both are good men, but the Pirates need a clean break from the current staff and to start over with new blood.
Will it matter, though?
The Pirates still are not going to spend a great deal of money. We all know that, and quite frankly, it is the single biggest issue facing the organization.
Huntington has a very tough job, because he doesn't have a lot of money to spend. He has done a very good job in some ways -- namely the three playoff appearances -- and a horrendous job in other ways.
The Chris Archer trade was nothing short of pathetic. Huntington gave away stars-in-the-making Tyler Glasnow and Austin Meadows, plus prized prospect Shane Baz, for a lousy, has-been pitcher.
Huntington's trade of Gerrit Cole to the Astros for four marginal-at-best players has proven to be embarrassing now that Cole is perhaps the best pitcher in baseball.
Most importantly, Huntington's development philosophy -- particularly with pitchers -- is downright awful. The Pirates have been the third-worst team in baseball since 2012 in pitching WAR with their own prospects, according to fivethirtyeight.com, and that fact alone could merit Huntington getting fired.
Assistant GM Kyle Stark and farm director Larry Broadway deserve a huge amount of the blame here. Both of them deserve to be fired as much as anyone else in the organization. They have overseen a farm system that, while teams such as the Curve have won and made playoff appearances, the prospects have not panned out to a high enough degree in Pittsburgh.
Huntington gets to keep his job, for now. But he needs to make some drastic changes in philosophy -- starting with the ridiculous pitch to contact ideology -- and in personnel.
Pitching coach Ray Searage said Sunday he expects to be fired, and that probably will happen. Most of the coaches on the big league staff also likely will be ousted.
All of which is necessary.
Clean house. Bring in lots of new people and lots of new ideas. That's the only way to turn this mess around.
Cory Giger can be reached at cgiger@altoonamirror.com.