The Pittsburgh Pirates have fired Altoona Curve manager Michael Ryan, according to Cory Giger.
Michael Ryan has been fired by the Pirates after being the most successful manager in @AltoonaCurve history.
Ryan:
"I don't know what to say right now. I'm just sort of confused."
"I wasn't even aware that my job was in jeopardy."— Cory Giger (@CoryGiger) September 3, 2019
Ryan joined the Altoona Curve as their manager in 2017, following a year where he managed the Bradenton Marauders to a championship. Altoona won a championship in 2017, and as Giger noted, Ryan has won more games with Altoona than any other manager.
That’s the tricky part about this. Wins and championships look good for minor league teams, but the ultimate goal is player development. That’s a difficult thing to quantify for a minor league manager, as player development involves many coaches, coordinators, and system strategies.
Ryan did say to Giger that he felt he needed to get better in this department. However, the fact that the firing came as a surprise to him suggests there’s a lack of communication on what he could improve upon with the team.
"In the back of your mind you knew if you didn't do a very good job these things can happen. I didn't think I did a very good job this year."
"I just thought the baseball part of it and trying to get the players better was what I needed to get better at. So I see their side."
— Cory Giger (@CoryGiger) September 3, 2019
The Pirates have development problems in the upper levels. I think those issues go well beyond Ryan, or any other manager, as they’ve existed for years and through multiple managers and coaches. Because there are so many factors in play regarding development, I don’t want to say that replacing anyone is the right move or a step toward improvement.
Ultimately, the Pirates could use an overhaul, and/or a lot more changes than just firing Ryan. We’ll see how that plays out the rest of the offseason.
UPDATE: More coaches have been let go. We don’t have the full list, so we will put it out when we do, but at least two more are gone and I wouldn’t be surprised to hear about others. As I said, I’ll give names when we have the full list instead of announcing them one-by-one.
UPDATE #2: The latest news is a little bit different than being fired from the job. Pirates released a statement on Ryan and said that he wouldn’t be managing Altoona in 2020, but other roles were discussed, and he’s looking into other opportunities as well. Guys change positions within the system all of the time, so it sounds like it is still possible for Ryan to return in some capacity, just not as a manager. He was at least given a chance to do something else with the Pirates, which isn’t the same as being fired.
Pirates director of Minor League operations Larry Broadway issued a statement on Michael Ryan: pic.twitter.com/H6aSLDW901
— Adam Berry (@adamdberry) September 3, 2019
