Greene County native Pete Putila emerges as Pirates GM candidate

Pete Putila grew up in Greene County rooting for the Pittsburgh Pirates. He might wind up in charge of their baseball operations or, possibly, at least playing a major role.

Putila, a Houston Astros assistant general manager, has emerged as a candidate for the Pirates’ GM job. The Carmichaels graduate’s primary responsibility with the Astros is overseeing their playing development system.

Other known candidates to replace Neal Huntington are Toronto Blue Jays vice president of scouting and former Boston Red Sox GM Ben Cherington and Milwaukee Brewers assistant GM Matt Arnold.

Huntington was fired last month, leaving the Pirates as the lone major league team without a GM. Indications are a hire will be no later than next week.

The Pirates also at least are considering the idea of restructuring their front office in the model of many other teams in which a president of baseball operations would be the primary decision-maker, and the GM would be the No. 2 person.

The 30-year-old Putila has been on the fast track in the Astros organization since interning in Houston in 2011 upon his graduation from West Virginia.

Putila played four seasons of baseball at Carmichaels, including on its state championship team as a sophomore in 2005. He then served as student manager of the WVU baseball team while earning his degree in sports management.

After Putila’s internship ended, then-Astros general manager Ed Wade offered him a full-time position as an administrative assistant in the baseball operations department. Putila eventually worked his way up to player development director — overseeing the Astros farm system — under current GM Jeff Luhnow before having assistant GM added to his title earlier this year.

Whoever winds up being hired as the GM will get a late start on the offseason. MLB’s GM meetings conclude Thursday morning in Scottsdale, Ariz., and the Pirates are also the last MLB team without a manager after the San Francisco Giants hired Gabe Kapler late Tuesday night.

Putila and Pirates assistant GM Kevan Graves interviewed for the Giants GM job, which wound up going to Chicago Cubs assistant GM Scott Harris.