Jason Mackey: Derek Shelton was just a symptom of Pirates' larger illness

PITTSBURGH — It took longer than most expected, but the Pirates might’ve actually figured out how to screw up a one-car funeral.

Or at least the firing of one man — in this case, Derek Shelton.

How did we arrive at this point? It’s a question worth asking because it sure isn’t accurate or fair to pin everything on Shelton. At the same time, it’s tough — no, impossible — to argue against his dismissal, made official via press releases on Thursday afternoon.

"We aren't performing the way we need to," Pirates general manager Ben Cherington said. "We're not performing in a way that our fans deserve. We know we need to be better."

The issues with the Pirates are many.

And I’m not even talking about the Clemente sign, the bricks, Kavan Markwood or the usher who fought an unruly fan and whipped him with his belt.

The Pirates’ lousy on-field results since a regime change in 2019 are defined by myriad traits I observed during my time on the beat, then after I transitioned to my columnist role.

Stubbornness. An inability to blend analytics with traditional baseball feel. Communicating with fans in ways they understand and respect, plus a general lack of openness. Developing a culture of accountability. Confidence that manifests as ego.

Yes, of course, resources are limited here but also not getting nearly enough out of those you have. That player-centric culture? Forget about it.

Meanwhile, that wasn’t the biggest or most costly shortcoming. The Pirates under this regime have routinely said development (and young players) will be the lifeblood of the organization, one of the few mechanisms small-market teams have to compete.

If that’s the case, the Pirates need a transfusion because they haven’t handled that nearly well enough.

The inability to extract and grow talent this way wasn't directly Shelton's responsibility, but he paid the price for the Pirates' lack of success in this area.

As the losses piled up, blame for the team's ongoing struggles was focused solely on Shelton, at least in this setting and this way, which produced three immediate thoughts in my brain:

— It was certainly time.

— Shelton was set up to fail.

— The Pirates haven’t done enough to truly solve their problems.

By firing their manager, the Pirates treated the symptom. They didn’t cure the illness. Here’s more of what I mean:

Failed decisions

Compare Ben Cherington’s work to that of Shelton, and it’s entirely possible the Pirates general manager has been worse at his job.

At minimum, Cherington’s failures have limited the type of players Shelton has had in his dugout to deploy.

"It's certainly not lost on me that, for my part of accountability, if I had done my job perfectly for five years, I might not be meeting with you today," Cherington said.

That’s not absolving Shelton. His lack of bullpen feel became evident. He also never evolved from the happy-go-lucky guy who kept things together during a rebuild to the taskmaster or demanding type the Pirates required to get over the hump.

One that looks further away than it did after a 76-win season in 2023, certainly.

But I'm pretty sure Joe Torre or Bruce Bochy could've managed the same teams Shelton did and not much would've changed. One obvious fail was never inquiring on Terry Francona this past offseason, but that takes us to another bigger issue the Pirates have experienced on the baseball side.

They genuinely believe they have this figured out.

They thought that after compiling a promising record through July 2024, only to have August and September turn their season sour. Back then, Cherington thought Shelton was the right guy for the job. He only changed his mind after this season’s lousy start.

Hard pivots after being so convinced of something? Yeah, we’ve seen that before.

— There was Henry Davis in right field, then back to catching again.

— Oneil Cruz playing the outfield, then not playing the outfield, then playing the outfield again.

— How much they screwed with Roansy Contreras’ delivery after a solid start to his career, including building in so-called rest periods. The same with Luis Ortiz, who to his credit actually figured it out.

— How many this-guy-will-find-it crusades have we seen over the years? Ka'ai Tom, Yu Chang, even Tucupita Marcano or Ji Hwan Bae. Jack Suwinski has had chances galore. Rowdy Tellez could've easily been designated for assignment earlier than he was.

— They determined Miguel Andujar wasn't good, a move that wasn't so much a pivot as it was a situation when their opinion ran counter to what most others thought.

— Even Andrew McCutchen this season, used lightly before he took to Twitter and now suddenly an everyday player. (For the record, I’m perfectly fine with the latter.)

The Pirates have simply been so convicted on things, like Shelton, until they haven’t. And the inability to nail those decisions — many about the manager’s head — has really hurt them.

The dichotomy here also came up on Thursday, as Cherington addressed a room of us at PNC Park. I asked him why the Pirates haven’t been able to win on the margins, as they’ve professed a need to do.

“It’s an interesting question because I do believe that certainly is part of what has to happen in Pittsburgh. It’s not the only thing, but it’s certainly part of what has to happen,” Cherington said. “When I think about that statement, where I first go is, ‘OK, are we playing defense? Are we running the bases?’ By and large, we have done those things. Our team defense has been good, at least as far as our measurements are concerned. Our baserunning has largely been good.”

To be fair to Cherington, he continued his answer by saying, “We haven’t executed perfectly in every situation” and he also brought up some of their bullpen struggles.

But if the Pirates’ metrics tell them they’ve defended or run the bases well during Shelton’s tenure, it’s probably time for new metrics. They have not done those things well enough and they certainly haven’t played a brand of baseball consistent with the best small-market clubs.

The gulf between metrics and on-field play is another thing that has defined this group — and not in a good way.

Beefing up your analytics department is one thing, but what good does that do if it provides nothing more than a mask for reality? One example came during the Cardinals series, when Shelton lifted Carmen Mlodzinski for Ryan Borucki and ultimately Chase Shugart.

Mlodzinski was risking a third time through at 88 pitches. Fine. Go to Borucki. But why remove one of your best relievers after 13 pitches when he’s pitching well and you’re turning to someone because of 12 good games? Doesn’t make sense, and Shugart ultimately crumbled.

The move was scripted, and it was an example of one of two things:

— Either the front office strong arming Shelton into a decision or ...

— The manager lacking feel for his bullpen.

Neither’s good.

The latter was something that defined much of Shelton’s time here, pitching decisions that always seemed to blow up in his face, and I’ll always wonder how many of those were dictated to him ahead of time.

Not that simple

The move here makes sense ... mostly because it doesn’t.

Cherington has extracted little outside of Paul Skenes from recent MLB drafts, yet the Pirates will allow him to oversee their pick in the next one?

Also think about it this way: The Pirates’ biggest problems — at least from a national image standpoint — this season have come off the field. Yet the move they made was to fire the guy in charge of the stuff between the lines.

It’s not wrong. But it’s incomplete.

Cherington also talked Thursday about what the Pirates must do to get out of this, and every time it was something similar to this: “It’s not a lack of effort from the hitting group or individual players. We’ve just got to get better at run scoring.”

We all know it’s not that simple.

The Pirates need to get better at run scoring, defense, bullpen performance, drafting, development, identifying the right players, communicating with fans and so much more, factors that extend far beyond the manager or hitting coach (Matt Hague).

It starts with the owner, of course. Bob Nutting is ultimately responsible for the direction of the franchise, and I’m pretty sure Cherington said the quiet part out loud when discussing how the most recent offseason played out.

“We re-signed [Andrew McCutchen] as a first step, and that was probably somewhat expected,” Cherington said. “After Cutch was in place, then you sort of look at the rest of the team, what your resources are and what the targets can be and you go after those targets the best we can.”

So ... the resources Cherington had seemingly allowed for Tommy Pham and Adam Frazier on the offensive side. Poor choices in hindsight, but that’s it?

Cherington also didn’t help matters by saying there was more he wanted to do ... then couching it by saying that’s true every season.

At the root, it’s another tentacle to the Pirates’ overarching problem, one that wasn’t addressed with Thursday’s news.

Cherington hasn’t been good at making the right offensive additions, so why, in theory, would Nutting give him more money to waste? The lack of action has also led to a predictable result: another poor offensive season.

It’s honestly why I left PNC Park feeling bad for Shelton because his dismissal — again, while perfectly valid — was another case of the organization believing it has solved a problem that very much still exists.

Good luck, Don Kelly. You're gonna need it.

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