While the Pirates had mostly hired younger coaches in the early stages of filling their major league staff, they broke that trend Monday.
The Pirates have hired Glenn Sherlock as a major league coach. Sherlock, 59, has 36 years of experience in professional baseball.
Sherlock's primary focus will be coaching Pirates catchers and run prevention. He will also assist manager Derek Shelton and bench coach Don Kelly with game preparation and management.
The Pirates were considering adding a quality control coach while assembling their staff. While the Pirates did not refer to Sherlock's position as such, his responsibilities check just about every box of a quality control coach.
Sherlock spent the last three seasons with the Mets. He was their third base coach for two seasons before moving to the first base coaching box in 2019. He was the Mets' catching instructor all three years.
Before going to the Mets, Sherlock spent 19 seasons as part of the Diamondbacks' coaching staff. He was their catching coach from 1998-2016, and spent 14 years as their bullpen coach, three as their bench coach and two as their third base coach.
At the moment, the Pirates have two catchers on their 40-man roster: Jacob Stallings and Luke Maile. Both have very good reputations as defenders but struggle at the plate and have never been asked to be anything more than a major league backup.
Another focus for Sherlock will be improving the Pirates' defense, which ranked among the worst in baseball last year. Their 121 errors were the most in the National League, and their -53 defensive runs saved was the fifth worst total in baseball.
