Pittsburgh Pirates officially announce Ben Cherington is new GM

PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Pirates officially announced Monday that Ben Cherington has been named the organization’s new general manager.

Cherington -- who will become the 13th general manager -- has 20-plus seasons of baseball operations experience, according to the Pirates. Seventeen of those years were as a member of the Boston Red Sox, including four as executive vice president/general manager.

“This is an important step forward for our organization,” Bob Nutting, Pirates chairman of the board, said in a news release. “Ben has an incredible track record of success having been a part of three World Championship teams in Boston, one as General Manager, and setting the table for a fourth. His passion and ability to identify, infuse and develop talent at every level, including at the Major League level, is exactly what we need to be successful in Pittsburgh.”

You can customize your WPXI News App to receive alerts to sports news. CLICK HERE to find out how.

For the last three seasons, Cherington served as vice president of baseball operations for the Toronto Blue Jays.

“Pittsburgh is the ideal opportunity for me, and the only one I was interested in exploring,” Cherington said in a news release. “The four pillars that will drive our success are elite talent identification, acquisition, development and deployment. My entire career has been spent focusing on developing great systems to be elite in these four critical areas, which will fuel our future success in Pittsburgh.”

Cherington, 45, will replace Neal Huntington, who was fired at the end of October.

TRENDING NOW:

Cox Media Group