Terms weren’t reported on Derek Shelton’s contract when he was first hired as the Pirates’ manager in November 2019, but The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal writes that Shelton’s deal is believed to run through the 2023 campaign. That would make it a four-year commitment to Shelton, who has only a 95-158 record during his two-plus years of managing the rebuilding team. While nobody expected Shelton to win given his threadbare rosters, progress of some type is expected, so Rosenthal feels there could be some questions asked if the Pirates post another 100-loss season. However, Rosenthal also notes that “Shelton has served almost as an assistant general manager” to GM Ben Cherington.
Speaking to a broader point of Rosenthal’s piece about skippers around baseball, he writes that “GMs of tanking teams, in particular, often are reluctant to hold managers responsible for the non-competitive clubs they’ve assembled, knowing a dismissal will only lead to greater scrutiny of their own actions.” While there are certainly some managers on shorter-term deals who are under additional pressure in 2022, it remains to be seen how many of these skippers might actually be let go after the year.
More from around the NL Central…
- The Reds might be able to activate Jonathan India from the 10-day IL on Tuesday, his first day of eligibility to return. India has taken grounders and run the bases on each of the last two days, and told MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon and other reporters that he is “feeling great,” though “I’m not going to push anything to come back right now.” India has been out of action with a right hamstring strain, and is one of 11 Cincinnati players on the injured list
- Tyler Stephenson is on the seven-day version of the IL after suffering a concussion on April 20, and manager David Bell told Sheldon and company that the catcher will likely be sidelined until early May. Bell even implied that Stephenson may not join the Reds during an upcoming road trip that runs April 29 to May 5, if just for precautionary reasons in advance of a possible May 6 activation.
- Wade Miley has yet to make his Cubs debut due to left elbow inflammation that arose during Spring Training, but the veteran southpaw is getting closer to pitching. 670 The Score’s Bruce Levine (Twitter link) was among those to report that Miley came out of a 50-pitch side session on Saturday with no issues, and Miley is now lined up to throw a live batting practice session on Wednesday. Miley is loosely scheduled to be activated off the 10-day IL sometime in May, though a more exact date will be known as the left-hander takes more steps in the recovery process.
PENSACOLA PANHANDLES
Buddy, it’s time to stop
SAVANNAH RIVER MONSTERS
I doubt the Pirates end up as a 100-loss team this year. I’m not just saying that only because the early-season sample size has looked good either. The only way I see both Cruz and Contreras not being reuglar parts of this roster by June, heck by mid-July, is if one gets injured. That already is a massive upgrade to the line-up. Reynolds is off to a slow start, but he’ll come around. Eventually they’ll replace some of the replacement-level guys with minor leaguers like Ji-Hwan Bae, Cal Mitchell, Canaan Smith-Njigba, Mason Martin, and Travis Swaggerty. That should add a ton of talent by summer.
Other than yesterday the Pirates bullpen has been quite good so far, especially Wil Crowe he’s been outstanding.
Seems reasonable enough. They’re a good group together and seem to mesh well. They have some grinders too (like Chavis), some good performers (like Reynolds), & young guys already up (like Hays). Good blend… so, I wouldn’t be shocked if they didn’t lose 100 games either.
Will Crowe has been on another level…
That’s a really cool thing for baseball fans, even for folks that are not Pirate fans. You get the sense, and it is usually the same for all the rebuilding teams, of when they are no longer a pushover. We saw that last year with the Tigers, and I can see it with the Pirates, and believe it or not, a little with the Orioles.
It’ll still take you 2-3 years, but I can see it. You just have to be patient and not try to jump the gun like Philly & the Reds did.
Even for bad teams a few things have to go wrong in order to lose 100 games.
@ MLB1225 I have been saying the same things and either get laughed at or called Nutting’s water carrier. There are several more players that could arrive by mid season next season too. Priester, Bujrrows, Flowers, Mlodzinski, Nichols, Gonzales,Peguero, Trolio, Suwinski, Scott, Fraizer, Davis, all have a shot to arrive sometime in 2023.
Sushi? Nah, I had it that for lunch Indian? No. *SCHREECH* tacos? Ya tacos…..
The question is, can they lose less than 100 games while not having a starting pitcher with more than 5 wins? Not so much of a stretch at this point, as it appears the Pirates have cornered the market on guys who have a difficult time getting out of the 3rd
While we know the length of the contract, we’ll never know the dollar amount. The Pirates got Shelton on the cheap, so he’ll have a job until 2023. Then, they will sign him to an extension at the same bargain rate because they won’t have improved by then.
^^ Wow. A real gem. Lots of compute cycles on this one.
David bell’s days are numbered
I hope you are right. He’s full of bad decisions. Case in point…putting your backup catcher as the DH.
All our days are numbered.
Pirates are underrated. They split with the Cardinals. (Would have taken 2/3 if St. Louis didn’t do a rain dance) and just took 3/4 from the upstart Cubs.
The Cards are a cult
Went 1-5 vs cards and brewers, 7-3 vs cubs and nats, at 10% of the schedule played the pirates are 8-8. Positives ,bullpen been very good and they seem to play the game correct on most nights, negatives, starting pitching and run production. They have 38 gsm vs reds and cubs so they will at least get 18 wins there but they have the AL east and Detroit in interlegue so they could lose 93-100 plus games.
They’re gonna make Cole cry for his momma when they face off against his fragile ego.
I’m actually pretty impressed with how Shelton has the Bucs playing, considering that minus a couple of players, it’s basically an expansion team of castoffs. They do have a certain life about them. The bullpen might be a mirage, but that wouldn’t be unique. “Ride ’em while you can”
But it’ time for BC to take the big leap in this year’s draft. Drafting for depth is all that well and good, but passing on an “aircraft carrier” (potential superstar) in Marcello Myer last year just delayed the rebuild, didn’t advance it. And yes, I understand the financials; many teams didn’t want to sign Wander Franco, and would rather spread the bonus money around, to a group of “meh” prospects. What’s that going to get them?
The rebuild is going OK (they WERE a mess). But like all rebuilds, is taking far too long; spending a little money here and there would have moved it along faster.
Shelton should be fired ..he yanks the starters too soon. I don’t want to hear the crap that they can’t go more to than 5 innings. The box scores so far prove it.
The bullpen had been excellent….but being over used will definitely take it’s tool.
Free advice: dont apply to manage any level baseball team above Bronco ball anytime soon.
Best advice… tread downriver and maroon yourself on herrs island…. yasshole
Hate the message all you want, fact remains if that truly is your understanding of today’s game, you would be lucky to strategize coherently with 12-yr baseball.
Everyone pulls there starters too early these days. I agree it’s a problem but right now it’s how every team operates. Then the bullpen gets burnt out and everyone complains, but no one considers doing things differently.
They Pirates have been piggy backing starters so far this season with the extra roster spots. Will be interesting to see how long they keep doing this as the season rolls along.
If baseball was serious about shortening the length of their games, they would force teams to stretch out their starters to go at least 7 innings. You can’t have teams use six or seven pitchers apeice and the game last less than 3 hours.
They are 500 so far, but this team still has a ton of holes. I said I’d be happy with 70 before the year. The starting pitching has been so bad and it’s unrealistic that the bullpen can keep up with how they started. The run differential isn’t good either. Of course you have an outlier, but that’s always a good indication of final record. They also have looked outmatched against the cards and brewers and have beaten the comparable teams. It would be hard to see Shelton not back next season unless you have some kind of 110 loss disaster. If they can improve, it would be nice for him to get an extension so he’s not on expiring contract.
While nobody expected Shelton to win given his threadbare rosters, progress of some type is expected, so Rosenthal feels there could be some questions asked if the Pirates post another 100-loss season.
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The assumption in that statement, by Rosenthal and Polishuk, is that Shelton has made no progress. The Pirates won 61 last year, and a pro-rated 51 in 2020. Does that not qualify as “progress”? and they played .433 in Sept/Oct last year. More progress.
And the improvement of 10 games from 2020 to 2021 included having traded Musgrove & Bell.
There is absolutely no way that you can define 2021 as “no “progress”.
Progress will continue to be slow for Shelton and Bucs. My biggest complaints are taxing the bullpen and the lineup. There is a different lineup every single game. I know there is still evaluation being done and you want your bench players to get ABs, but at some point there needs to be consistency. The Cole Tucker experiment should’ve been over after last season. Newman provides solid defense but that’s it. Castillo should be at short, Chavis at 2nd and Marisnick in the OF everyday until they prove otherwise. Bench players should get 1 start a week, not every other day, and not at the same time. We don’t need Reynolds and Hayes having the same off day. I feel Leyland was the last manager to field the same players everyday.
Shelton is a joke
The 2 dumbest things I’ve seen this year is letting Thompson pitch to Yelich with bases loaded and Peters ready. What a disgrace. He was appropriately punished for his stupidity. The Reynolds Hayes both on the bench for a home game Easter Sunday was just as bad. Could care less that they won, because like you said no reason they should ever be out of the lineup on the same day.
Ha dumb thing 3. Hayes at SS and chavis at 3rd. Chavis makes a bases loaded error. This is like watching a 10 year old play the show. You have a gold glove caliber 3rd baseman, let’s put the guy barely in the major leagues there instead. What a freakin moron