Perrotto: How Firm Is Don Kelly’s Grip on Manager’s Job?
Don Kelly has enjoyed his first year as the Pittsburgh Pirates’ manager so much that he wants to stay.
“It’s been challenging,” Kelly said. “I’ve learned a lot through it. I’m certainly not perfect every single day. I’ve continued to learn, continued to get better. I would love to continue on. My focus is on every single day, trying to hold myself to that standard, hold our staff, and hold our players to that standard of getting better every single day.”
Kelly was put in a tough spot when he was promoted to manager from bench coach on May 8 to replace the fired Derek Shelton. The Pirates were 12-26, and their season was in a complete spiral.
The Pirates are 67-89 and will finish last in the National League Central for the second straight year. They will also have a seventh consecutive losing season, marking their 29th in 33 years.
Under Kelly, the Pirates are 55-63. That record isn’t excellent, and the ridiculous notion at midseason that Kelly might get NL Manager of the Year votes has quelled.
However, it is apparent to anyone who has been around the team that things have been better since Kelly took over. Not perfect, but better.
The Pirates are more organized under Kelly, show more attention to detail, and play harder. Those are three key ingredients to success – if you have enough good players.
Kelly doesn’t have enough good players, but the way he has handled the team has been admirable. He can only make so much chicken salad under the circumstances.
Pirates general manager Ben Cherington praised Kelly when he met with the media over the weekend.
“My view of the job that Donnie’s done is one that’s not surprising to me,” Cherington said. “I had confidence when he took the job in May that he would do a really good job. He’s an excellent communicator. He’s dogged in his approach to the job. He has high self-belief. He believes in people. I said before I believe he cares about other people more than he cares about himself.
“He’s got a lot of really, really strong qualities for the job, and I’ve seen that play out. I’ve been particularly impressed by his willingness to go after some really hard things, too. Consistent with what we both agree, we need to do more consistently to win more games. Of course, you would expect a manager to do that, but it’s not easy when you don’t have the full mandate of the permanent job to do that. He’s done it anyway. I’ve been particularly impressed with that.”
Regarding having the full mandate of the job, Cherington stopped short of saying Kelly would return in 2026. Kelly’s contract expires at the end of the season.
However, in response to a question about the Pirates’ culture, Cherington gave an answer that leaves some doubt about whether Kelly will be the manager on opening day in 2026.
“It’s so important that I would never be satisfied with where we are culturally,” Cherington said. “I also think the end of a very difficult season is a difficult time to assess culture. I think we have a massive opportunity going into 2026 with the group we will have, no matter what happens, some new form of leadership from the beginning of 2025 to really make that what we want to make it.”
That answer sounds like Cherington would consider changing managers. If that were to happen, it would be a poor way to treat someone who brought order to a chaotic season.