The Pirates are set to interview Twins bench coach Derek Shelton this week for their managerial vacancy, reports LaVelle Neal III of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. We’d heard of Pittsburgh’s interest in Shelton, but all that was previously known was that Rocco Baldelli’s right-hand man had popped up on the Bucs’ radar. Shelton becomes the second known candidate to take the next step of interviewing with the Pirates, joining A’s bench coach Ryan Christenson.
Shelton, 49, joins the 45-year-old Christenson as younger candidates to replace 62-year-old Clint Hurdle, who was fired at the end of the season. Neither Shelton nor Christenson has managed at the big league level before, although each has MLB coaching experience with successful small-market clubs, so perhaps there’s a thread emerging in the Bucs’ candidates. Shelton has been bench coach in Minnesota for two years, surviving the transition from Paul Molitor to Baldelli last offseason. Indeed, Shelton was on the radar for the head Twins’ position himself, although he ultimately elected to stay in Minneapolis after Baldelli got the job instead.
Shelton is also slated to interview for the Mets’ managerial job this week. In addition to bench coaching, he’s got big league experience as a hitting coach, having served in that role in Cleveland and Tampa Bay for a decade. He does have some managerial experience as well, albeit at the lowest levels of the minors. Shelton managed three seasons in the Yankees’ farm system at the beginning of the century, although he’s quite a bit removed from his last time running a dugout.
You can track all of the managerial rumors and interviews around baseball here.
Slow thread, huh? Anybody wanna talk about baseball?
It doesn’t really surprise me the Pirates are going after a lesser known coach from a low payroll team like the Twins. They need to get someone to eventually win with a franchise that always spends less than $80 million a year. I they were smart they would trade all if their good proven veterans like Marte for the best available prospects. Then they should acquire as many top prospects as possible by taking on bad contracts until they hit their $70 mill annual max for the next few seasons. If they get the right prospects they should start peaking around the time the bad contracts expire. Then they will have a good core and about $70 mill to add to it in free agency. Do it Tampa Bay style. The Rays at least got to a world series with an even lower payroll than the Pirates. They should stop lying to the fans about actually trying to compete every year. Everyone knows they aren’t. I doubt it is even possible to do it this way. If they want to stick to their payroll structure then admitting what they are would definitely raise their draft pick status. 4 last place finishes and a World Championship is way better than 5 4th place finishes and zero playoff appearances. The question is whether or not the owner actually cares about winning or if he just wants to try and trick a few die hard fans into believing they might compete so he can keep his constant flow of slight profit floating in to support his lifestyle without actually having to cut into his savings. I would rather lose $ for 4 years and turn a major profit on the 5th year to go along with a world championship. Heck, he might not even really lose money those years if he stops wasting his time pretending he is trying to compete on an immediate basis. A couple #1 picks in a row can do wonders for marketing and fan base. Look at Strasburg and Harper.
The Nationals also always accompanied their top picks with significant investments in other top players. They were never afraid to add payroll to better the team. And quite honestly they’ve done a remarkably good job with the financial commitments they’ve decided to make. Far better than average.
I like that Huntingdon is in the process of hiring a new GM and DavidKoreshOnPittsburghSports is still holding out hope that Nutting will fire him. Just like he has since 2011.
I saw him comment that he should be fired for the Archer trade alone, so I figured for fun, let’s go back and see what he said after the trade. Obviously, it was about how the Pirates were fleeced and gave up a future ace in Glasnow, right?
“Where was this wizardry in 2015?” “You know, the throw-in (Glasnow), alongside Austin Meadows, in the Archer trade?”
Oh, that’s right, virtually every single local media member pushed for an Archer trade by name.
Maybe the media will be better in Vegas.
What made you bring up Vegas? Are there rumors that the Pirates might beat the A’s to the punch and actually move their? I haven’t heard anything about it yet.
Many local media and fans push the narrative (fantasy) that if fans boycott, Nutting will sell the team to a new local owner.
These same media and fans pushed the narrative (fantasy) that if fans boycott, Nutting will raise payroll. Of course, he responded to lower revenues by lowering expenses and cut payroll.
They will boycott the team out of town.
All they are proving is that Pittsburgh is a bad baseball market. All they are doing is loading the Mayflowers.
And the death spiral gathers speed.
There’s been no boycott and there will be no boycott. Attendance and TV ratings both increased. Bucs ain’t goin’ to leave. Calm down.
I think that if they were going to leave it would have happened 25 years ago.
Nutting has been making money.
The fans will forget and come to the park if they field a good team again.
I must admit,though, that I was appalled during the last Marlins series when it seemed like there were less than 1000 fans at two of the games.
I have never seen that in 58 years of watching the Pirates.
If NH was going to go he would have gone by now.
He has had a rough couple of years but as a trader he is very good notwithstanding a bad trade and a mediocre one,even if they were both high profile.
The negativity of too many yinzers reflects negativity of the unhappy people in this country.
It is too difficult to do the research to have an unbiased middle of the road knowledgeable opinion on things.
Stand-Josh thinks that they are moving there in a few years.
One of the most important things that Nutting has done is stabilize this franchise in a manner that the previous two owners could not.
Stabilize them right into fourth place in the division…
“…in the process of hiring a new GM and…”
New manager, obviously.
if he’s cheap, nutting will bite
And now the local talking heads in Pittsburgh are bashing the idea of Derek Shelton being the pick .Even though the same guys spent the last several years bashing Joe Maddon at every chance, they are jealous that the Angels got him and the Pirates did not. Glad that he is not because he would never would have been on board with a rebuild. For Maddon, the Pirates would have had to sign a boatload of top players and the Pirates nor most teams could do that all at one time. They will have to hire a guy wanting to build a team and put his stamp on it over 2-3 seasons of work. Maddon is not in the mood for that these days. If I were in his intelligent shoes, I would not be willing to do it either.
Shelton may have been one of the few people who failed up and actually did better. He was the Rays hitting coach for years and as soon as he was let go the team started hitting way better. But it looks like he did well enough as a bench coach to start getting noticed for a head coach position. But it seems a lot of teams are hard up for former Tampa staff.
The local Pittsburgh guys just want a big name. No matter who gets hired, they will be bashed from the moment they are announced.
The biggest two names left are Giraldi and Showalter and I think that they are going to the Cubs and Phillies respectively.