The Pirates have hired Don Kelly to serve as the bench coach on Derek Shelton’s staff, according to Jon Heyman of MLB Network. Kelly, 39, worked the 2019 season as the Astros’ first base coach, a role he accepted after beginning his post-playing career as an assistant in the Tigers’ player development department.
Kelly, a native of the Pittsburgh area, made his Major League debut with the Pirates but spent the majority of his playing days with the Tigers. Kelly will succeed Tom Prince, whom the Tigers hired to manage in their minor league system.
Many view Kelly, who has made a quick ascent up the coaching ranks, to be a future manager, but he’ll have to cut his teeth in the Pittsburgh dugout for the time being. Joining first-time manager Derek Shelton in the dugout, there’s not a lot of experience between the two. However, with the franchise in a transformative state, Shelton and Kelly should have opportunities to grow alongside the players.
Kelly’s hire continues the Pirates’ organizational overhaul under new general manager Ben Cherington, who has been able to hand-pick some of his staff given the coaching turnover. The upper ranks of the Pittsburgh organization will have a drastically different look this offseason and beyond, as Cherington and Shelton will be joined by new team president Travis Williams and assistant GM Steve Sanders.
In one last note on the Pittsburgh coaching staff, Kelly will join coaches Joey Cora, Rick Eckstein, and Justin Meccage, all of whom have been retained, per Adam Berry of MLB.com. Cora and Eckstein will remain in their current posts as third base coach and hitting coach, respectively, while Meccage will shift to a yet-undetermined role after previously serving as an assistant pitching coach. With former pitching coach Ray Searage out, the team has yet to identify a replacement.
Sounds like Manager is in his future. First base coach for a contending team and now bench coach for another team is pretty impressive considering he’s younger than a couple active major leaguers!
Donny Kelly Baby
Sounds like a guy who know Houston’s in big trouble with the commish
Or smart enough to take an opportunity when it’s presented?
Pirates fans like us are most excited about coaching changes during the offseason
Need players changes, esp starting pitching.
Not sure if you’re being sarcastic or not, but I am excited to move on from a coaching staff that made Gerrit Cole look like a decent, middle of the rotation starter.
Great, now lets bring back Neil Walker.
Let’s not. I don’t understand the Yinzer obsession with Walker just because he grew up 50 miles outside the city. Don’t forget he turned down a contract extension and refused to change positions in order to stay here.
I was just saying that because Kelly is Neil’s brother in law. Plus, I don’t see why the Pirates can’t bring him in on a cheap one or two year deal to play a utility role.
He might help sell some tickets since they’re probably not contending in 2020
Crazy that 4 years ago they were in the 2015 WC game. They got shut out by Arrieta who had one of the greatest stretches of success a pitcher could have.
The 1927 Yankees were not going to beat Arrieta that day.
Yeah, not like they could’ve used the 20 homers he hit the following year or anything. Not like he didn’t go all out each time out there unlike a guy like Marte. And gee, that “yinzer” comment sure hurt. What are you, still in middle school?
Pirates offered Walker a 3 year extension for 33mil and asked him to move to 1B so JHay could start at 2B. He refused both so they had to trade him and sign John Jaso to play 1B. Yes the Pirates could have used him, and he decided he didnt wanna play here anymore. That’s not the kid of guy I want on the coaching staff.
or maybe he didn’t want to play first base, along with his rather great performance in 2014 he thought he was worth more.
He plays first base more and more because.. well he wants to play and if he didn’t become more versatile he wouldn’t be on the field as much any more.
I very much doubt it was because “he didn’t want to play here any more” as we where winning. he didn’t extend we traded him and things fell apart from there
TOD-I get it that you do not like Marte.
He is the best all around player on the Pirates even if he does not meet your high qualifications.
I have already graduated from middle school,thank you,and did very well there.
How about you?
Buying out a year of free agency was a weak attempt at “extending” Walker. Y’all, the Pirates are cheap. Nutting is cheap. They won’t pay anyone, yet somehow Neil Walker was offered the keys to the city. Didn’t happen, no way no how.
Walkers finished. Injury prone
That has been true. The Bucs were right in letting Walker go. He has spent a ton of time on the IL since he moved on to New York.
Gozurman-You are correctamundo.It is amazing to me the yinzers on this site who do not realize that they are yinzers.
If the posts are constantly negative,you are a yinzer,face it.
One poster said that the trade of Glasgow and Meadows made the Buc’s farm system go from one 9f the best to the worst.Amazing that these two are the greatest players of all time.
Anyone who knows anything about baseball knows that Neil Walker played less than 2/3 of the time for three years while making the $33M.
And the Pirates could have really used him at first base.
I pay attention to about a half dozen Pirates posters and you are one of them.Also,I read the new ones.
The rest are yinzers whether they realize it or not.
I know I can be a “Yinzer” at times. But it is mostly directed at the ownership and the organization as a whole. From analysis to scouting, I criticize the way they have gone backwards the last 4 years. With all the changes this offseason, maybe it will turn the ship back around. It’s going to take a lot of work, but I am intrigued to see the changes.
SW-Criticism is one thing.It can often be justified.What I am saying is that if it is over and over and over again with no justification or analysis or based on facts it is the same old you know what.
That kind of post adds nothing to the conversation.
Everyone should feel free to express their opinion and realize that that is all that they are since we are not professionals in this conversation.But it does not take a genius to be negative all of the time.
Baloney.
The Meadows/Glasnow trade stunk from the start and the comment that Meadows showed no signs of what he is now and that Glasnow was never going to be an MLB caliber starter is not just amazingly short-sighted, but something you’d think came from the Huntington fan club
It’s laughable that in your way of thinking, critique amounts to negativism which also amounts to being a “yinzer” that is some kind of hybrid between a blue collar, know- nothing hick that gets his or her info from local talk radio. Grow up
The point remains that this was a FO that was clueless where the idea of a plan for the future was concerned. Get rid of veterans like Cutch, Cole, Walker, Morton et al one year in a clear salary dump, and then destroy your future talent by jettisoning Meadows, Glasnow and Baz the next, in hopes of perhaps getting a WC game. Are you serious?
You wouldn’t run a business like this, let alone a team
But you want like-minded, rose-colored glass types to find the positives. The ones who’ll look beyond Marte’s lack of hustle or care, Bell’s iron glove, the fact that there is no pitching, catching or outfield help coming via the minors. Maybe you’ll be heartened in saying that PNC is still one of MLB’s nicest parks, that they have a nice fireworks show, that bobble heads are nice to have and that gee, the pierogi races are fun
I pay attention to realists, not posters whose grasp of the sport comes down to studying analytics on end
I do not rely on statistics like many posters do but realize the advantage of using them.
You are a one trick pony in that you dwell on the Archer trade which was not universally panned at the time of the trade.Your hindsight glasses are 20-20.
You ignore all of the great trades that NH made,and the three year run of 280 wins.Incompetents cannot compete like that.
Who is the one that is clueless?Cutch for Crick and Reynolds.
You are a Yinzer you just won’t admit it.
So it is wrong to point out the fact that Meadows had never put up any power numbers ever, at any level of pro ball until 2019? Not a soul could have seen the number of HR’s coming from Meadows. this year. Wonder how low his total will go if they take the juice out of the ball for 2020. He, like many players, is still a work in progress and no one should be putting the stamp of greatness on Meadows just yet. I was surprised at the players who were sent to Tampa for Archer but was not wailing, whining or gnashing my teeth over the players traded. Glasnow pitched like his Pirates version in the playoffs for Tampa and it remains to be seen if he bounces back from injuries to his Tampa version prior to him having am injuries. Baz had control issues after he was drafted by the Pirates. Time will tell if he is the real deal or a bust or somewhere muddled in the middle. All if this is what makes baseball fun.
I remember when Kelly was playing and was always known as a “smart guy” AND would probably not be a superstar who made too much money; hence the talk of his coaching future. Like Shelton. he’s part of the new wave that realizes polarizing analytics and “old school” is just silly; the winners are the ones who can meld the two.
Looks like a sound, Cherrington-type hire.
Like a rat abandoning a ship.
Houston is finished, the scum of MLB.
Cole wanted out before all this became public.
Whatever you say, Bozo LMFAO!
Cole probably had no clue what was going on in 17
He was on the Pirates then.
Which is why I said he had no clue what was going on in 17
Good hire, there had been talk that he would be considered for the managers job.
He will bring the trash can easy to Pittsburgh
Let’s hope the Commish slams the door on all that.
Donnie is good guy…all around. I don’t think there’s a position on the field and he hasn’t played at the major-league level including pitching.
Loved Donnie when he played for Leyland in the D. Smart kid. I believe he can become the second coming of Ole Smokey Jim, one of baseball’s best.
I like it. I‘m just glad we are seeing some changes. This new staff surely can’t make this team any worse. I just hope Eckstein is spending the offseason figuring out what went wrong with Bell and how to fix it. Not sure that the pitching staff can be helped by any pitching coach.
I doubt you know what you are talking about. Ray Searage had the pitchers pitching to “contact” and it devalued many of the pitchers past and present. IF the Pirates find a pitching coach (and new coaches who will assist the pitching coach) that can figure out each pitchers strength and weaknesses, then allow these pitchers to pitch to their abilities, it may turn around Archer or even Musgrove. I am not saying these guys will necessarily turn things around next year, but they where definitely better before coming to Pittsburgh Pirates. Last year, Mitch Keller struggled with Searage philosophy of pitching to contact. I think if Keller, Archer, and Musgrove can pitch inside and outside of the plate, they can fair better than last year or any other year while being in Pittsburgh. Searage had every pitcher throwing more breaking balls than any other pitch selection a pitcher has. All the breaking pitches was to force Weak “contact”. Strike outs was never Searage philosophy and hated it when Cole wouldn’t follow his instructions of breaking pitches before fast balls. I am glad Cole was traded before Searage put Coles arm in a sling like many others former or present pitchers. Breaking pitches is tough on the arm and throwing them 80% of the time, would blow out your arm at some point throughout the season. I would watch the pitch selection on the AtBat app. I was curious on what pitchers threw the most of throughout each start/game. I was fairly surprised to see that the last few years, every pitcher was throwing more breaking pitches like sliders, curve balls, splitters, etc. than a fast ball or change up. It was always the hard breaking pitch throughout the game. Sometimes the same pitch was thrown 3 or 4 times in a row. Last year was my conclusion that Ray needed to go and a new pitching coach needed to be brought in. I think with a new pitching coach, will change the philosophy and hopefully turn these young guys around.
I’ve heard reported that the “pitch to contact” charge is a bit overplayed insofar as that was NOT the blanket instruction given in the last few years.
But it is a convenient arguement for the yinzers so please don’t mention it.
It really doesn’t make sense to me that if a guy throws 98 mph that Searage told him to slow it down and pitch to contact.
It may have been the philosophy of choice,but it does not mean that he forced it down everyone’s throat.
Make Bucs-There is always hope for the pitching.If Kuhl and Santana come back strong,Burdi gets healthy,and the three starters regain their best form,the Pirates will be a decent team.
Maybe Ben will be smart enough to add pitching depth which NH clearly did not do last year unless one considers AAA pitchers depth.
I am very glad that they kept Epstein.Not sure about Cora but they probably wanted to keep a little in the transition and he may have a good relationship with the Spanish speaking players.
Really liked him as a player, seems like a solid hire. Liking our staff so far.
Donnie Kelly Baby! The real “Donnie Baseball”.
Give him a year he’ be running the place.
donnie kelly baby
Any word on pitching coach ?
Donny F’in Kelly.