Pirates GM Ben Cherington: 'Fully expect' Derek Shelton to return as manager in 2025

Pittsburgh Pirates general manager Ben Cherington gave a vote of confidence to Derek Shelton, saying he expects him to return next season despite the likelihood of missing the playoffs for a fifth consecutive season as the field manager.

“I fully expect Shelty to be the manager in 2025,” Cherington told reporters Wednesday morning before the Pirates’ game against the Miami Marlins at PNC Park. “I think there’s a lot to the job I believe he does really, really well, and I also believe he works his tail off to continue to improve in a number of ways. Seeing that, I believe he’s the right person to manage this team in 2025, so I fully expect that will happen.”

The Pirates (70-76) are coming off an August collapse that saw them go 8-19 and endure a 10-game losing streak to slip from 2½ games out of wild-card contention into last place in the NL Central.

Hired in late November 2019 to replace Clint Hurdle, the 54-year-old Shelton has a 287-404 record (.415 winning percentage) in five seasons as the Pirates manager.

Shelton’s debut season was shortened by the covid-19 pandemic, and the Pirates finished an MLB-worst 19-41. That was followed by the first back-to-back 100-loss seasons for the franchise since the mid-1950s. They made a 14-win improvement last season, going 76-86, and entered this season hoping to contend for the playoffs.

“It’s very, very important to me, and I appreciate that,” Shelton said after the Pirates beat the Marlins, 3-1, to sweep the three-game series. “I think I’ll be the first one to tell you that there are still things I need to be better at, we need to be better at and we need to continue to improve. But the fact that Ben said that is very important to me.

“I think the most important thing for us is that we need to focus on winning games and getting better to get to where we want to be — because we’re not where we want to be. We just came off of a sweep. We’re playing better baseball. We played better baseball during the Washington series. But, ultimately, I realize that I have to get better and I realize that we have to get better.”

Pirates manager Derek Shelton on receiving a vote of confidence from GM Ben Cherington, who said he fully expects Shelton to return in 2025. pic.twitter.com/OtjPmPrOzX

— Kevin Gorman (@KevinGormanPGH) September 11, 2024

As the head of baseball operations, Cherington said he shared in the responsibility for the Pirates’ performance this season but also defended Shelton and his coaching staff, saying it “works as hard as any in baseball, and I know cares as much as any in baseball.”

Cherington added that the coaching staff will be evaluated at the end of the season.

“I think it’s just the overall work ethic, care level, showing up every day looking for where we can find improvement, whether that’s with individual players or into coaching, whether that’s in our game-prep process, whether that’s how we review,” Cherington said. “It’s not perfect. We make mistakes. We’re constantly trying to figure out how to get better and close any gaps we have.

“But, at a high level, I’ve been in this game for 30 years, this staff cares as much and works as hard as any I’ve ever been around and I believe they’re really skilled. And like I said, we’ve got to get better and we’re responsible for that. Ultimately I’m accountable for that.”

Cherington also addressed the Pirates’ baseball operations leadership openings after the firings of international scouting director Junior Vizcaino and research and development director Sean Ahmed and the reassignment of pro scouting director Will Lawton.

“I do believe that it’s an opportunity for us overall in baseball operations to continue to strengthen and improve,” Cherington said. “I’m excited about that. We’ve made a good amount of change across baseball operations in the last several years. Change is going to be constant. This is the change that’s happening this year.”

Cherington reiterated the statement he made Sunday on his weekly radio show on 93.7 FM, that the Pirates are making progress even if it’s not reflected in the record.

“I believe we’re improving, just not as fast as we want to and need to,” Cherington said. “We’re accountable for that, ultimately I’m accountable for that. Need to do all the work every day to figure out how do we speed that improvement up. That’s not specific to the major-league team either; this is an entire baseball operations point that we’re accountable for making sure we continue to improve in every aspect of baseball operations and as we do that, it will translate to more and more wins at the major-league level.

“Very clear on that, believe the team is better than it was last year and not good enough. We need to make it better. There’s no one thing that’s going to do that, there are lots of things that are going to do that. We’re responsible for delivering and we’ll keep focused on that.”

That has been difficult to assess as of late, as the Pirates have had some pitiful performances: They blew a seven-run lead in a 14-10 loss to the Chicago Cubs on Aug. 28, were on the receiving end of six perfect innings by Cleveland’s Alex Cobb on Sept. 1, a combined no-hitter by the Cubs on Sept. 4 and six no-hit innings against the Washington Nationals in the first game of a doubleheader Sept. 7.

Cherington called it a “shared responsibility,” absorbing some of the blame for the Pirates’ play.

“I’m the leader of baseball ops, so I’ll take the first part of the accountability,” Cherington said. “Look at myself in the mirror first and foremost before anything else. And, yes, there’s shared responsibility across baseball ops, with our players, with our staff. We’re all responsible for it, and we all have to be willing to look at ourselves and how do we get better. I’m confident that’s exactly what’s happening, and we’ll continue to do that.”