The Pirates officially announced their coaching staff this morning. Most of the hirings had been previously reported, but the Bucs announced a few new additions. Most notable is the hiring of Thomas Whitsett as an assistant pitching coach under Bill Murphy.
Whitsett has ties to Murphy from the Houston organization. He had coached in the Astros system as a pitching coordinator and was most recently their Triple-A pitching coach in 2024. Whitsett had come through the college ranks after working at the University of Arizona. This is his first job on a big league staff.
Murphy and Whitsett are two of five new hires as Don Kelly enters his first full season as manager. The additions of bench coach Kristopher Negrón and third base coach Tony Beasley were reported last month. Pittsburgh also promoted Triple-A manager Shawn Bowman to the title of MLB field coordinator.
Chris Truby gets the title of infield coach after working with the generic title of major league coach for most of the 2025 season. Matt Hague (hitting coach), Christian Marrera and Jonny Tucker (assistant hitting coaches), Tarrik Brock (first base coach) and Miguel Perez (bullpen coach) are all back in their previous roles.
Framber going to follow Murphy to Pittsburgh
I know a lot of you guys think the Pirates are going to spend and yes they will but they don’t need pitching. They need bats. Still I wished Bill Murphy stayed with houston
after we trade Mitch Keller to the Nationals for Dylan Crews, we’ll need a left handed starting pitcher
BC is looking for oppo taco right handed hitters
It’s getting ugly and at this point I’d be fine with them signing an arm they value and trading from their pitching depth.
Geez didn’t take too long to get this done, no?
We need more “Tom”‘s back
The full-on “Thomas” trend needs to slow down a bit
Great. But it seems like the minors’ coaching and development staffs need the attention. I hope that can happen in this struggling organization. Change of scenery arguments are made all the time about players, but it doesn’t seem like a lot of those players are interested in the “scene” of Pittsburgh baseball. I hope it doesn’t happen, but maybe the change of scenery argument should be applied to the team. But what city that doesn’t already have a team or teams AND that wants an MLB team is a bigger market than Pittsburgh? Moving the team might be akin to rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Pittsburgh needs fans in the seats and an ownership that is willing to spend even small market average and a farm system that can develop players. The lack of attendance hurts the effort as much as the reluctance (or reality) of ownership to spend at or beyond combined revenues. Beginning with the bankruptcy, the Pirates have found themselves in a hole that will be hard to climb out of. The few years in the teens when they were competitive were probably a combination of luck, good drafts, the psychological stimulation of new ownership and renewed hope, but now…..as several reporters have suggested, what good free agent would want to play in Pittsburgh today? Skenes’ cheerleading for free agent signings is very admirable and I hope he can make an impact in that area, but…….my hopes are fading.
I definitely agree that they need to focus some effort into player development. Rather than focusing on correcting swing paths or trying to make tweaks, the team really needs to work on developing pitch recognition and bat to ball skills. Rather than try to fix a hole in a swing, I’ve found my own coaching success in teaching players (albeit youth) to mitigate trouble spots. Learn to foul off pitches, hit the ball where it is pitched, etc. I see almost none of that on a consistent basis from the team’s current players.
As for the market, I don’t think all “small” markets are built equally. Pittsburgh is declining, revenues are not keeping up with the cost of doing business. Comparatively, areas such as KC and Tampa are growing, meaning there should be return on investment. The Pirates invest more just to break even, . Minnesota, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee and Cleveland all share similar market profiles to the point where irresponsible spending will eventually lead to financial doom.
If I were the Pirates (or any other team with a regional sports network paying peanuts for broadcast rights), I would file a grievance to prevent simulcast rights for large markets, in essence arguing that Comcast (Phillies) or YES (Yankees) should pay substantial fees for broadcast rights or even a local feed when those teams play in Pittsburgh. If you could get enough teams in on the grievance (AZ vs. LA, Milwaukee vs. Chicago), it might force the commissioner’s office (who ultimately would arbitrate such a dispute) to find a way to equalize available revenue across all of the markets instead of a select few.
All the stuff you’re talking about in terms of development and team ownership are at best band-aids for a horribly broken system.
Baseball Finance is way over my head so thank you for those insights. It will be interesting to see what comes out of the next bargaining round. Your comments also make me wonder what a different ownership structure (private equity or public stock ownership) might look like.
If ownership noticeably spent more in at least back to back seasons, and the players and coaches spoke up in press conferences and interviews about wanting to see more fans in the seats, do you think it would make a difference in attendance, merchandise sales, etc., even if they were not actually winning games yet?
I’m genuinely curious, I don’t not know the fanbase well enough to even form my own educated opinion on the subject, so I am just wondering is all.
It may take ownership a couple years of continued increases in spending, and potentially a couple to put together a roster capable of winning a division title, would this current Pirates fanbase show up and support their team enough to male a noticeable difference?
I know the older Pirates fanbase were a bunch of diehards, and they always showed up loud and proud. That was a different time, different circumstances. Can this team be profitable in Pittsburgh, and would ownership ever even invest heavily enough on a consistent basis what it would take to make that happen? And to rejuvenate the Pirates fanbase?
I’ve been to a Steelers game fairly recently, so I know first-hand how passionate Pittsburgh fans can be about their football. Based off of that, I think they are dedicated enough to give the Pirates a true home field advantage, but would ownership do what it takes?? I guess the last part is my real question…
I think that the problem is a combination of the number of games that one could go to (how many people would go to 81 games or even 20 games a year at the cost of a game?), the number of fans who want to go to a game, the affordability of a game, and the product on the field in terms of success and actual entertainment. I am a fan who lives in RI now. How often will I go?
nothing like new coaches to help waste a couple more skenes years
They were the only 2 guys at the Homeless shelter who would work for food.
Can he hit?
People that were mad when Oscar Marin wasn’t retained (not fired) were ridiculous. He finished all but 1 year garbage ERA finishes. Getting Murphy who finished top 10 every year in ERA except 1 year. What a win.
Which one of these guys is going to teach Cruz how to play CF? Or Suwinski to hit?
They need to be finalizing their roster to include a power hitting outfielder and a 3rd baseman who has power
Retreading players like Pham won’t help