2:50 p.m.: Cherington told pirates to beat today that Kelly’s appointment was “permanent for 2025” (link via noah hiles of the post-Gazette pittsburgh). It could end up being considered for 2026 and beyond, but for the moment, the team is only engaged in the rest of the current season. This seems to prepare the ground for a large -range managerial research this winter.
11:42 am: The pirates announced Thursday that they had dismissed the director Derek Shelton, who had been in his position for more than five and more seasons. Bench Don Kelly was raised in the management position.
“Derek has worked incredibly hard and sacrificed more than five years. His family has become a large part of the Pirate family, and that will be missing,” Director General Ben Cherington said in a press release today. “He is an incredibly intelligent, curious and motivated baseball chief. I think he was the right person for work when he was hired. I also believe that a change is now necessary. I wish Derek and his family all the best in their next chapter. ”
Shelton, 54, was hired by the pirates during the 2019-20 offseason, replacing the longtime skipper Clint Hurdle. He had been coach of the bench in Minnesota before hiring and also had a long race as a coach of the big league, passing in 2005-09 to Cleveland and 2010-16 to Tampa Bay. The Jays hired Shelton as a quality control coach for the 2017 season, after which he spent two years in Minnesota.
Shelton was the first major hiring under Cherington, although it was studied for the managerial vacancy in Pittsburgh even before the pirates dismiss the former director general Neal Huntington (a curiously timed decision, since he had led the first stages of the said management research). In some parts of six seasons under Shelton, the BUCs displayed a record of 306-440, exceeding 76 victories during a given season (a brand they have reached twice). Pittsburgh left for a start of 12-26 on the season, actually tanning all traces of the slight trace of the playoff series that they had entered in the season. The owner Bob Nutting referred to this dark start to the season in his own declaration.
“Derek is a good man who did a lot for pirates and pittsburgh, but it was time to change,” said Nutting. “The first quarter of the season was frustrating and painful for all of us. We have to do better. I know it. Ben knows. Our coaches know it. Our players know it. There remains a lot of baseball to play. We must act with a feeling of urgency and take the necessary steps to solve this problem now to take over the track as a team and organization. ”
We cannot deny the poor performance of pirates under Shelton, but it is also difficult to pin this performance on a skipper that has never been awarded much to work. The mention of Nutting to act with “the emergency” seems to be the far-fetched border at a time when, for the second consecutive year, the pirates have the best hope of pitching baseball erase the triple-a nets while the rear of the staff of the major league.
Last year was Paul SkenesWho made his MLB debut before May 6 and quickly stormed baseball. Skenes began the star match, won the recruit of the year of the NL and finished third in Cy Young’s vote. This year, Bubba Chandler is seated on an MPM of 2.25 and a withdrawal rate of 38.3% in seven Triple-A departures. The fourth and fifth starters of the pirates, Bailey vacillates And Carmen Mlodzinskihave eras of 5.06 and 6.16, respectively. Jared JonesTheir second or third best starter, appeared on the injured list all season. It is impossible not to wonder if Nutting feels burned by Skenes who earns a full year of service because of this recruited victory of the year and therefore expects even longer to press the trigger of the promotion of Chandler.
Beyond the contradictory nature of these “emergency” comments and the actions of pirates with Chandler, Nutting categorically refused to invest in the team via a free agency. Pirates have never signed a free agent to a greater contract than the $ 39 million agreement over three years signed by Francisco Liriano More than a decade ago.
As MLBTR’s contract tracker shows, they have not signed a single free agent for a multi -year agreement since their signature of almost decades on the right Ivan Nova On a $ 26 million contract over three years. Not only that, pirates only exceeded $ 8 million over a free one year agreement in this same period – AROLDIS CHAPMAN$ 10.5 million contract in the 2023-24 offseason. By using the same data of our contract tracker, the pirates spent a total 173.65 mm on free agents since their last appearance in the playoffs ten years ago.
Admittedly, the free agency is not a remedy that cannot repair everything that suffers from an organization. The main free agent signatures can often be a backhand, in fact. But completely avoiding the average levels of the free market and firmly avoid any type of mid -range expenditure to complete the list does not put baseball operations or storage employees in a position to succeed.
This does not mean that Shelton and the Front Office are flawless, but the margin of error for these key decision -makers is made thin as the property is happy with the average payroll of $ 69.4 million (excluding the shortened season of 2020) which was trotted during the five seasons of 162 games under Shelton. Pittsburgh was 55-52 on the deadline last year. Shelton and his staff clearly assume some responsibility for the difficulties after the team’s diadline. However, criticisms would be negligent not to emphasize that the tight budget of property, which led Cherington & Co. Bryan de la Cruz And Isiah Kiner-Falefa (While subtracting Martin Perez), do not have given them the best chance of capitalizing on their solid game during the first two thirds of the season.
The development of pirate players – or its absence – in recent seasons is also one of the decisions. Skenes was a roaring success. Jones looked at the part of a potential high -end starter before his injury. Mitch Keller,, Bryan Reynolds And Oneil Cruz are all great quality leaguers – the latter standing like a potential star. However, the majority of the main perspectives of the organization over the years, in particular the strikers, simply have not disappeared. Injuries had an impact on some of them, especially Ke’bryan Hayes And Endy Rodriguez. But prospects like Nick Gonzales,, Liover Peguero And Henry Davis all had trouble reaching the majors. Other young strikers (for example Jack Suwinski) seemed to be at the forefront of bursting before taking important steps in his second and third looks on the pitch of the big league.
Shelton having been shown at the door, Kelly will now be responsible for the unvatable goal of trying to straighten this ship. The former Big League Utilitymanman retired after the 2016 season and played a role in the Tigers players’ development department for the 2017 season. He then spent a year in the Strait Detection Rows before being hired by Astros as the first basic coach. Shelton tabule Kelly as a bench coach just weeks after being hired, and Kelly was his right arm for almost six years of Pittsburgh pair.
There is no “temporary” tag in today’s press release pirates. It is not yet clear if they will carry out a new search for a managerial replacement at the end of the season or if Kelly, from Pittsburgh, will occupy his new role in 2026.
“Donnie is also respected that anyone in our clubhouse and in our entire organization,” said Nutting about Kelly in the press release today. “He’s a pirate. He bleeds black and gold. No one is no longer committed, and no one loves this team or this city more than Donnie. He is the right person to manage our team and help us get back on the right track. ”
