Pirates give Russell another year

The Pirates have exercised the contract of manager John Russell for the 2010 season.

“JR met or exceeded expectations in his first year as the Pirates manager. His club worked hard to play the game properly and battled from the first out until the last,” said general manager Neal Huntington.

“His leadership, knowledge, attention to detail, ability to see the big picture and passion for things being done the right way made him the ideal choice as our manager a year ago and made the decision to pick up his option for 2010 an easy decision. I look forward to working closely with him for years to come as we build a consistent championship caliber organization in Pittsburgh.”

This will be Russell's second year as manager. The Pirates were 67-95 last season.