The Pirates will keep their front office intact despite consecutive collapses in the second half of the season.

Pittsburgh general manager Neal Huntington and assistants Kyle Stark and Greg Smith will return in 2013.

"We clearly have a number of things in the organization that have gone right," chairman Bob Nutting said. "As angry and frustrated as we were about August and September, it's taken me a month to come back and to recognize that last year was still the best season that we've had for 20 years and we didn't get there by accident.

"As an organization, I don't think we should fall back on scapegoats and pretending that there are easy answers and grabbing one or two people and walking them off the plank. We cannot minimize the strong performance for the first 3 1/2 months of the season."