Pirates fire manager Derek Shelton after 12-26 start to season

Noah Hiles, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on May 8, 2025

Published in Baseball

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PITTSBURGH — Derek Shelton has been relieved of his duties as Pirates manager, the team announced on Thursday.

Bench coach Don Kelly will take over as manager.

“Derek worked incredibly hard and sacrificed a lot over five-plus years. His family became a big part of the Pirates family, and we will miss that,” Pirates general manager Ben Cherington said in a statement. “He’s an incredibly smart, curious, and driven baseball leader. I believe he was the right person for the job when he was hired. I also believe that a change is now necessary. I wish Derek and his family all the best in their next chapter.”

The Pirates fired Shelton just 38 games into his sixth year at the helm after his club started with a record of 12-26. Shelton finished his Pirates tenure with a career record of 306-440. It was his first time as an MLB manager.

“There is a lot of baseball left to be played,” owner Bob Nutting added in the statement. “We need to act with a sense of urgency and take the steps necessary to fix this now to get back on track as a team and organization.”

Kelly began his sixth season as bench coach before being promoted as the team’s new manager. Prior to joining the Pirates, the Pittsburgh native spent the 2019 season serving as the first base coach for the Houston Astros.

“I believe strongly Donnie is the right person to manage the team right now,” Cherington said in the statement. “He has the skills and experience needed to do this job really well and deeply cares about the Pirates and Pittsburgh. I look forward to working with him even more closely.”

Nutting was excited about Shelton’s potential when he introduced him to the media in December 2019.

“I’m not sure I’ve ever been more energized, enthusiastic or pleased with the direction of the organization,” Nutting told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on the day Shelton was introduced at PNC Park.

Under Shelton’s watch, the Pirates expectedly struggled to a 19-win season in the abbreviated 2020 campaign due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Such was also the case in 2021 and 2022, with the Pirates posting back-to-back 100-loss seasons.

The club took a step forward in 2023, finishing with a record of 76-86. But with higher expectations entering the 2024 campaign, the Pirates crumbled following the trade deadline, finishing with the same record. Despite no winning seasons in his first five years with the organization, Shelton was retained.

“I believe he can help lead us toward winning in 2025,” Cherington said of Shelton at his end-of-season press conference. “I believe he already does a lot of the aspects of the job very well and at a high level. I believe he works as hard as any manager in the game, and I certainly believe he cares as much as any manager in the game.

“Like all of us, certainly including me, he has targets that he needs to improve on, and I believe he is fully aware of those. I believe he’s committed to working on those, and I believe he understands the team needs to ultimately respond to him, and we’ll go into 2025 together, accountable together. I’m excited for that. I’m excited for the work ahead.”

Shelton spoke throughout the past offseason and spring training about how this year’s team would take a step forward by “winning on the margins.” His belief was that improvements in fundamental areas such as base running and fielding would help complement an already strong pitching staff. But when the regular season arrived, the Pirates played perhaps their sloppiest brand of baseball since Shelton was hired.

Nutting expressed his frustration with the Pirates' poor fundamental play in the opening week of the season during an interview with the Post-Gazette and MLB.com, saying the team simply had to be better.

“There is a point where it becomes execution,” Nutting said. “That’s why you play the season. That’s why you play the games. We talk about winning on the margins. Obviously, Miami was challenging. I know that. Ben knows that. Shelty definitely knows that. We were just talking about it. But it’s not productive for him to look back at Miami other than as a way to learn how to get better tomorrow, to make sure that we don’t make those mistakes again [Friday] against the Yankees. You just can’t do that.”

After no notable improvement was visible, the Pirates owner followed up on his words and made a change.

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