Pirates lay off Banister in restructuring

Longtime Pirate Jeff Banister was among the club’s 15 layoffs Friday, as they restructured their baseball operations department under new general manager Ben Cherington.

Banister rejoined the Pirates as a special assistant in January 2019. Before he managed the Texas Rangers for four years, Banister spent 29 years in the Pirates organization in a variety of roles.

He worked in player development and was a finalist for the managerial job that ultimately went to Clint Hurdle in 2010.

He was Hurdle’s bench coach until 2014.

It was thought that Banister might replace Hurdle after the 2019 season, and he participated in the first round of interviews; however, after former general manager Neal Huntington was fired, Banister was not among the final candidates.

Banister went 325-313 with the Rangers and won back-to-back AL West titles in 2013-14.

He interviewed with the Houston Astros this past offseason to succeed A.J. Hinch, though the job ultimately went to Dusty Baker.

With the Pirates, Banister also served as a minor league manager and field coordinator at the major and minor league levels.

The Pirates drafted Banister in the 25th round of the 1986 draft. He got one major league at-bat, pinch-hitting for Doug Drabek and singling against Dan Petry at Three Rivers Stadium.

Cherington has talked for months about observing the way the Pirates do things, learning and eventually figuring out what to tweak and adjust, although he never specifically mentioned laying people off.

Since Cherington was hired, the Pirates added what the general manager referred to as “bandwidth” on the informatics side, increasing some of the quantitative work the group has been able to do.

Minor league pay

The Pirates have committed to paying their minor league players through July, according to a source, and anticipate doing so through the end of the season.

With the minor league season unlikely to happen, those guys have been receiving a $400 stipend every week.