Perrotto: Pirates Really Need Someone Like Gene Lamont

The Pittsburgh Pirates need a power hitter and bullpen help.

Gene Lamont, who is 78 years old and last played in a major-league game in 1975, can’t help in either of those spots.

However, Lamont will provide something the Pirates need —a veteran baseball man who understands that the game is more than an algebra problem or a physics experiment.

The Pirates hired Lamont on Friday as a special advisor to manager Don Kelly, who was promoted from bench coach last week to replace the fired Derek Shelton. Though he won’t have the title, Lamont will be the de facto bench coach.

Lamont managed the Pirates from 1997-2000. He also served as a coach with the Pirates under Hall of Fame manager Jim Leyland from 1986-91 and again in 1996.

Lamont was the Detroit Tigers’ bench coach from 2006-13 for Leyland and 2014-17 for Brad Ausmus. Kelly played for the Tigers for seven seasons between 2007 and 2014.

The Pirates have placed more emphasis on mathematics and science since Ben Cherington took over as general manager in 2020.

I have no problem with analytics, regardless of what people may think because of my age and experience. I’m not a guy who thinks everything was better 40 years ago.

Some readers might be surprised that I was once editor-in-chief of Baseball Prospectus’ website. So, I understand the importance of analytics.

However, baseball smarts are necessary to become a winning organization. The Pirates show their lack of baseball acumen by making fundamental mistakes daily.

The Pirates won’t eliminate all their mistakes by adding Lamont, but it is encouraging that Kelly blends old-school sensibilities with new-age technology instead of relying solely on numbers. Kelly isn’t to let fundamental mistakes slide, and Lamont will be there to reinforce that ideology.

Lamont will be someone for Kelly to lean on during games. That is important because Kelly has never managed at any level. He had been a scout and coach since his last season as a player in 2016.

Cherington is an admirer of Lamont. As general manager of the Boston Red Sox in 2011, Cherington wanted to hire Lamont after firing Terry Francona.

However, owner John Henry overruled Cherington and hired Bobby Valentine. That proved disastrous as the Red Sox had a 69-93 record in 2012, and the polarizing Valentine was fired after one year.

I have never been in a worse clubhouse atmosphere than the one surrounding the ’12 Red Sox. Second baseman Dustin Pedroia, always the writers’ friend, yelled at me for asking a seemingly innocuous question.

Lamont was gracious in having to yield to Valentine.

He was the same way in 2000 when then-Pirates owner Kevin McClatchy decided to fire Lamont as manager with a week left in the season. Lamont finished out the season so it would not detract from the last baseball games played at Three Rivers Stadium.

So, Lamont isn’t only a good baseball man. He is a good man.

I’ve known Lamont since I started covering the Pirates and Major League Baseball in 1988. I respect him and learned a lot of baseball from him during my formative years in the business.

The Pirates have lacked a veteran baseball man since Clint Hurdle was fired as manager in 2019. Lamont fills that sizable void.

Some are criticizing the Pirates for hiring a coach who is 78. That’s nonsense. The man has a wealth of baseball knowledge.

A flailing organization just got better by hiring Gene Lamont.