Cherington: ‘I Fully Expect’ Derek Shelton to Return as Pirates Manager in 2025

PITTSBURGH — There were legitimate questions as to whether or not Derek Shelton would return as manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2025, but that debate can be put to bed.

General manager Ben Cherington said on Wednesday at PNC Park that he “fully expects” Shelton to return in 2025.

“I fully expect (Shelton) to be the manager in 2025,”  he said. “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.”

Shelton has been manager of the Pirates since he was hired to replace Clint Hurdle after he was fired before the final game of the 2019 season. A couple weeks after Cherington was hired as GM, he deicded on Shelton, then the bench coach of the Minnesota Twins.

In five years as Pirates’ manager, Shelton has amassed a 287-404 record. After the pandemic-shortened 2020 season and back-to-back 100-loss seasons in 2021-22, the Pirates improved to 76-86 last year and finished in fourth place in the National League Central.

The 2024 year had a lot of promise with the Pirates in the playoff hunt into the second half of the season, resulting in them buying at the trade deadline for the first time under Cherington. However, the Pirates slid in August and enter Wednesday’s game against the Miami Marlins at 69-76 and again in last place in the division.

It was in April of last season that the Pirates extended Shelton, and it looks like he’ll be back for at least another season in 2025.

While Cherington expressed a vote of confidence in Shelton as manager for 2025, he was noncommittal about the rest of the Pirates’ coaching staff.

“As we would in every season, we will get to the end of the season and have an opportunity to look at the entire group and decide, again consistent with the point about faster improvement and more improvement, if any adjustments are necessary to give ourselves a better chance to do that.

“This staff works as hard as any in baseball and I know cares as much as any in baseball. Really love working with them and we all know we need to get better. We’ll get to the end of the season and spend more time on that.”

The Pirates’ coaching staff has remained largely intact since Andy Haines was hired as hitting coach in the 2021-22 offseason. But Haines and several other coaches have come under fire amidst another inevitable losing season in Pittsburgh.

The Pirates rank 26th in baseball with a .674 OPS. They’ve received strong work from their starting rotation and are seventh in baseball with a 3.85 ERA, but they also rank 27th in bullpen ERA at 4.66.

As for why the Pirates have struggled this year, Cherington took blame, but also noted it’s a shared responsibility.

“I’m the leader of baseball ops, so I’ll take the first part of the accountability,” he 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.