Confirmed: Ben Cherington Will Return as GM; Pirates President Explains Why
PITTSBURGH – After a sixth-straight losing season to begin his tenure, there was speculation as to whether or not Ben Cherington would remain the Pittsburgh Pirates general manager moving forward.
Speculate no more.
Cherington will remain in his current position at least for another year, he confirmed when speaking to the media in the PNC Park press conference room on Monday afternoon.
“I think some of it is what we just talked about, just continuing to learn from what we have done, from decisions, the ones that have worked well, the ones that haven’t,” Cherington said when asked what he can do better heading into year seven. “How do we continue to be more excellent in everything we do? Select better players, create a better environment, choose the right resources, the right tools, etc, deliver those to players. Some of it’s that.
“I think, certainly in my head, it’s just an overwhelming amount of urgency and focus on the major-league team. And again, it gets back to like keeping the team on the field and the game that night, the most important thing. I strongly believe in my ability to do that. We’ve got to go do it and execute it.”
Cherington was hired as the team’s GM after Neal Huntington was dismissed following the 2019 season.
In six years, the Pirates have yet to sniff the postseason, peaking at 76-86 two seasons in a row from 2023-24 and finishing in the cellar of the National League Central in four out of six seasons.
Despite the minimal success, team president Travis Williams, who will also remain in his current position, said keeping Cherington was the right move for the organization.
“I think given where this team is at this point in time, the strengths that we have in terms of our pitching staff, the young core of position players that we have and what we have in our farm system coming up, we felt at the end of the day that making any changes as a general manager would set us back,” Williams explained. “It’s not what our fans expect, that’s not what we expect. We’re looking in 2026 to make the playoffs. Period. Full stop. We did not want to veer from that. We’re pushing it all in to make sure we’re able to make the playoffs in 2026.”
Heading into his seventh season now with little to show for, there is mounting pressure on Cherington to turn the Pirates into a winner after finishing the 2025 season 20 games under .500.
The biggest need for the Pirates heading into the offseason is obvious – offense, offense and more offense. There are other needs, too, but the Pirates have a strong pitching core that was let down by a lineup that finished last in Major League Baseball in runs, home runs, slugging percentage and OPS.
Under Cherington’s leadership, the Pirates have yet to hand out a multi-year free agent contract and have shied away from trading top prospects for established major-leaguers.
There will be heightened urgency this offseason to get better, but given the organization’s track record, will the Pirates actually make the necessary moves to get better?
“I think we’ve got to be ready to be aggressive in acquisition this offseason whether it’s free agency or trade,” Cherington explained. “In our situation we’ve got to be willing to assume the risks of trades because free agency is not an open ocean for us. We’re going to be able to be targeted there and we will be and we’ll try to be able to put ourselves in the best position to do that we possibly can, but if we want to give ourselves every chance, it’s got to be the trade market also.
“We’ve got to be prepared to chase down every single thing that we think has a chance to help this team win more games in ’26, execute on the ones we can get to and just be dogged about it all offseason.”
Though the Pirates have offered little to believe that they will be serious contenders in 2026, the internal expectation is to make the playoffs. If that goal is not met, or at the very least the Pirates aren’t vastly improved, it’s impossible to envision Cherington – or Williams – continuing in their respective roles beyond next season.
“Our belief and expectation is that this team is a lot closer than our performance and our records would suggest. Our goal is to win in 2026 and to make the playoffs.”
More about: Pirates