The Pirates announced Thursday that they fired manager Derek Shelton, who has been in his position for the past five or more seasons. Substitute coach Don Kelly Has been promoted to management position.
“Derek worked hard and sacrificed a lot of things over five years. His family became an important part of the pirate family and we'll miss that,” General Manager Ben Cherington said in a statement in a press release today. “He is an incredibly smart, curious and motivated baseball leader. I believe he was the right person when he was hired. I also believe that there is a need for change now. I hope Derek and his family are all going well in the next chapter.”
Sheldon, 54, was hired by the Pirates in the 2019-20 offseason, replacing long-time captain Clint Hurdle. Prior to hiring, he worked as a backup coach at Minnesota and also served as a major league batting coach for a long time, spending 2005-09 in Cleveland and in Tampa Bay in 2010-16. Jays hired Shelton as the quality control coach for the 2017 season and has been in Minnesota for two years since.
Shelton was the first major employee under Cherington, although he considered Pittsburgh’s management vacancy before the Pirates even fired former GM Neal Huntington (strangely, strangely, given that he had been leading the early stages of that management search). In part of six seasons under Shelton, the Bucs scored a 306-440 record, with a 76 win in a given season (they hit two). Pittsburgh started the season 12-26, effectively defeating any faint traces of the playoffs, hoping they make it to the season. Shop owner Bob Nutting mentioned the grim beginning in his own statement.
“Derek is a good guy who does a lot of things for the Pirates and Pittsburgh, but now it's time to change,” Nutting said. “The first quarter of this season was frustrating and painful for all of us. We have to do better. I know. Ben knows that. Our coaches know that. Our players know that. There is a lot of baseball to play. We need to take a sense of urgency and take the necessary steps to address the efforts of this team and organization.”
Under Shelton, the Pirates were underperforming, but it was also difficult to fix the team's performance on the captain who never got a lot of work. In the second consecutive year, the Pirates have beaten baseball’s highest pitching prospects with the back end of the major league workforce, the attitude that Xinnate mentioned is shown.
Last year, it was Paul SkynisHe didn't make his debut in MLB until May 6 and immediately swept the baseball. Skenes started the All-Star Game, won the NL Rookie of the Year, and finished third in the Cy Young vote. This year, Bubba Chandler Sitting on the 2.25 ERA, seven 3-pointers strikeout rate was 38.3%. The Pirates' fourth and fifth starters, Bailey staggers and Carmen MlodzinskiERAS is 5.06 and 6.16, respectively. Jared JonesTheir second or third best starter has been on the injured roster all season. It is impossible not to wonder if the Nuts burned as Skenes won the year-round rookie of the year to win the year-round service, so it waited longer to trigger the trigger in Chandler's promotion.
Apart from the ambivalent nature of those “urgent” comments and contradict Chandler's actions with the Pirates, Nutting refused to invest in the team through free agents. Pirates never signed free agents with three-year 39mm trades Francisco Liriano More than ten years ago.
As shown by MLBTR's contract tracker, they have not signed a free agent with a multi-year contract since their nearly ten-year-old Right signed Ivan Nova A three-year, $26mm contract. Not only that, the Pirates can only exceed 8mm in the same free agent trade spanning a year – Aroldis Chapman10mm contract in the 2023-24 offseason. Using the same data from our contract tracker, Pirates spent a All Free agents’ $173.65mm since last playoff appearance a decade ago.
Of course, free agency is not everything that can solve tissue disease. Major free agent signatures can often be a setback. But even avoiding the mid-level of the open market altogether and firmly avoiding any form of mid-range spending to clearly complement the lineup, this doesn’t make the baseball business or canoe employees successful. This is not to say that Sheldon and the front desk are not wrong, but the gap between errors for these key decision makers is thin when ownership satisfies the average $69.4mm payroll (excluding the 2020 shortened 2020 season).
And more.
