With Derek Shelton Out, Where Do the Pirates Go From Here?
The Pittsburgh Pirates fired manager Derek Shelton on Thursday morning. What's next for the organization as they look to turn things around?
Late on Thursday morning, the Pittsburgh Pirates made a decision that many saw coming for a while now. The club announced that they dismissed their manager, Derek Shelton, who was in the middle of his sixth season with the club.
The Pirates also announced that they already named a new manager, with their bench coach Don Kelly set to take over.
In the Pirates’ press release on the firing, general manager Ben Cherington said, “I believe strongly Donnie is the right person to manage the team right now.”
He would also go on to add, “He is a Pirate. He bleeds black and gold. No one is more committed, and no one loves this team or city more than Donnie. He is the right person to manage our team and help get us back on track.”
Cherington’s words regarding Kelly show that the team strongly believes this is the right decision, and it’s the move to get them back on track.
However, nobody can look at the team on the field and think a personnel change will save the sinking ship. There’s plenty more to address, and Shelton’s dismissal appears to be the first step in attempting to turn things around.
Now that Shelton is gone, there’s a new question on the horizon: Where does the team go from here? Let’s take a closer look at the situation and attempt to find an answer.
Examining the Shelton Tenure
Shelton’s tenure in Pittsburgh was far from a success, as he embarked on a long journey full of failure. In his five full seasons and part of a sixth, Shelton managed the team to a record of 306-440, which was good enough for a win percentage of just .410.
With Shelton at the helm, the Pirates never finished above .500, nor did they finish a season above fourth place in the division.
Shelton’s best finishes were two 76-86 seasons, which took place in 2023 and ’24. The Pirates also lost over 100 games twice, and they were on pace to do it for a third time under Shelton this season.
Granted, these failures cannot all be blamed on Shelton, as he regularly possessed a roster that was subpar at best. Cherington didn’t give Shelton many weapons, which could’ve been a large reason for his failure.
However, Shelton isn’t completely blameless either; He often made questionable managerial decisions at best.
For example, Shelton’s inability to correctly manage his bullpen will be one of the key takeaways from his years as manager. He’d consistently use struggling arms such as David Bednar, Colin Holderman, or others in key situations in hopes of finding different results, only to have the same pitchers struggle repeatedly.
This often led to the loss of multiple winnable games, and Shelton repeatedly taking the blame for those losses.
Shelton also had a tendency to use his best arms in situations where he should be saving them. For example, during Bednar’s best seasons, there were numerous times where Shelton pitched Bednar in non-save situations.
Then, the very next day, the club would be without their closer in a close game or save situation. They’d then have to rely on another non-closer to step in, which wasn’t a winning formula.
Shelton also caught a lot of blame for his lineup construction, something that was more evident throughout the early parts of the 2025 season.
Andrew McCutchen has statistically been one of the top hitters on the team this season at 38 years old. His 111 wRC+ currently ranks second on the Pirates, and he’s only one of two qualified Pirates hitters with a wRC+ above the league-average mark of 100.
Despite this, McCutchen has been seen outside of the starting lineup more than usual this season, getting plenty of days off in pivotal games. While some of this direction could be coming from Cherington or due to McCutchen’s age, this type of lineup construction often confused everyone watching the team.
Once again, Shelton is not all to blame, as the roster around him has been below average at best. The Pirates haven’t fielded a team with a league-average wRC+ during any season in Shelton’s tenure.
In fact, the last season the Pirates had a wRC+ above 100 as a team was all the way back in 2014.
Shelton’s time in Pittsburgh will be remembered as a very, very dark time for fans of the team. But it’s important to remember the resources he had to work with and the struggles of the team around him. While Shelton may have made plenty of mistakes, these failures are far from his fault only.
What’s Next in Pittsburgh?
As I mentioned in the introduction, the Pirates have already chosen a new manager in their former bench coach, Don Kelly. Being a player himself, Kelly has plenty of experience around the game of baseball. Kelly made his debut in 2007 for the Pirates and spent nine years in the major leagues before retiring.
Since retirement, Kelly began coaching with the Houston Astros in 2019 before joining the Pirates the same year as Shelton in 2020. He served as the bench coach from then until this season.
Kelly has been well-liked and highly regarded during his time with the Pirates. Cherington had plenty of good things to say about Kelly in the press release regarding the decision to move on from Shelton. Kelly has served as the temporary manager a few times when Shelton has been away, and he’s done a good job during these few moments.
Kelly should bring a younger approach to the team and hopefully a more consistent way of managing the team and the lineups. However, since we really haven’t seen Kelly in this role before, it’ll be more of a wild card as to how he ends up working out.
With management at the top still the same, it’s possible not much changes with Kelly leading the way if Shelton was indeed getting heavy input from Cherington.
Kelly has postseason experience — something this team could heavily value with all of the youth on the roster. Hopefully Kelly can introduce a new age of winning and transition the young talent to the major leagues, teaching them what it takes to be successful at the highest level.
Given the current state of the roster, a simple managerial change won’t make a huge difference right away. At most, the Pirates could be getting more consistent bullpen usage or a more efficient usage of the team’s weapons in the lineup.
However, the focus will still be on the performance of the offense, as they’re still the second-worst team in the sport by wRC+.
This move is certainly a start in terms of the Pirates organization improving moving forward, but it is far from the solution. At the end of the day, the people responsible for the product on the field remain the same.
Cherington and owner Bob Nutting don’t appear to be going anywhere, but if Kelly can maximize the team’s performance, you may see a slightly better product take the field.
It still appears the Pirates are in for a long season, as they’re currently projected to finish with over 110 losses at this pace. If we can see minor improvements throughout the rest of the season, though, it will be easier to deal with a losing product on the field.
Written by
Jay Staph, a huge baseball fan and stat nerd, founded and ran his own baseball writing website, BSBWrites, at just 16-years-old. With focal points around prospects,…