President Frank Coonelly adresses Andy Van Slyke rumor

I asked President Frank Coonelly if he could confirm the Van Slyke rumor (being interviewed as potential manager position –check earlier post) and if he could discuss any other candidate for the job. This is what he said:

“I am not sure how that rumor started but it is not true. To date, the only candidate that we have interviewed has been Eric Wedge. We will announce to our fans each candidate that we interview at the completion of that interview.”

“Out of respect for the process, we will not be commenting further on the substance of individual interviews until a manager is selected. I know that Pirates fans are intensely interested in who the next manager of the club will be and we are intensely focused in selecting the person who can help lead the major league team to the championship caliber club that are Pirates fans deserve.”

Coonelly went on to say, “There is no set number of candidates that we are looking to interview. We were able to schedule an interview with Eric Wedge yesterday and did so immediately because Eric is a very qualified candidate who is also having discussions with other clubs. We are early in our process of compiling a complete list of candidates to consider. Once that complete list is compiled, we will have a better sense of the number of candidates to move to the next step of the interview process. Our focus is to consider all qualified candidates so that we find the right person to lead this young club.”