Bullpen coach Justin Meccage might have found his calling as a coach, but he was a player first, and one of his fondest memories of his time in the game was the summer of 2002.
After being drafted by the Yankees in the 32nd round of that year's amateur draft, he went directly to their short-season Class A club in Staten Island. That ended up being a pretty good team, anchored by future eight-time All-Star Robinson Cano and future Cy Young award runner-up Chien-Ming Wang. There were nine future major leaguers on that team, and the group would go on to win the New York-Penn League championship.
Derek Shelton was manager of that club. It had been 18 years since Meccage had worked with him, but he still sees the same guy from those Staten Island days.
"One of the things that stood out most about Shelty was his ability to connect with people and really dig down deep into who people are and establish relationships," Meccage said. "To this day, I think that's probably still his strength. That ability to connect with people and motivate people to be as good as they possibly can be."
From there, the two went their separate ways. Meccage pitched through the next season before becoming a coach. Shelton would go on to the Indians' organization and became their major league hitting coach in 2005.
Their paths crossed again this past offseason. The Pirates cleaned house following a last place finish, and after president Travis Williams and general manager Ben Cherington were put in place, the focus shifted to finding a field manager.
Shelton previously had interviewed with the club before Williams' and Cherington's hirings, and was a front-runner when the new regime restarted the search. Meccage's future with the club was unclear, but Shelton's name jumped off the page.
"I thought, 'this guy's a perfect fit,' " Meccage said.
Eight months, but amazingly zero games, into Shelton's tenure as manager, Cherington agrees. There might not have been any games, and he physically was separated from his players, but Shelton was still helpful.
"He has become what we hoped he would in terms of an input in baseball operations, someone who's given me feedback, helped me be better. I've learned from him," Cherington said Wednesday. "I've also been impressed, especially given that it is his first time in this particular position and just his comfort in delegation, his comfort in trusting and empowering others on the staff to do their jobs. I don't think I was as good at that when I was first GM. There's a tendency maybe to feel like you've got to do everything and that's not really effective, that's not a good sign of leadership. He's just gotten that quicker than I did and I think others that I've seen."
Among those duties delegated, bench coach Don Kelly has run spring training and summer camp, something Shelton did in Minnesota during his time as bench coach. Meccage and pitching coach Oscar Marin led the process to making sure pitchers stayed prepared during the shutdown and are built up in camp.
"I'm excited every day and come to work because he makes the environment really fun," Meccage said. "And he lets us do our job, which is really really nice."
Meccage's Yankees team was Shelton's most recent season as a manager. Along the way, he was the hitting coach for the Indians and Rays, quality assurance with the Blue Jays and bench coach with the Twins from 2018-2019.
Catcher Luke Maile worked with him with the Rays and Blue Jays, making the Pirates' his third stint with Shelton. He agrees, with Meccage: Shelton hasn't changed much.
"He's the same guy. I knew he would be, but it's refreshing," Maile said. "I mean, he's got a very energetic personality. He likes to talk smack. He likes to keep it loose. That hasn't changed at all."
Shelton doesn't want it to change, either. On Monday, he asked Jamey Carrol and Scott Elarton, two former players and current special assistants to Pirates baseball operations that Shelton has known for years, if he had changed, or if he does, would they tell him?
The clean ending to that anecdote was, "they were very willing to tell me and laughed." He laughed about it a bit too when retelling the story, but it was coming from a serious place. Shelton wants his personality to be part of the club's identity, and that can only happen if he is genuine.
"I’ve been around a lot of managers with different thought processes," Shelton said. "You do two things. You mold not only to what you’ve seen work and not work, and then you mold to your personality. I’m kind of an optimist, I’m fairly sarcastic and I like to have fun. That’s kind of what I want our club to be."
Sarcastic and fun? That's right up Jarrod Dyson's alley.
The Pirates' most senior player has clicked with Shelton, in large part to a mutual love of making jokes, preferably at the other's expense.
"It's hard to get along with a manager sometimes," Dyson said. "You've got some managers that are going to do it their way, and that's how it's gonna be. You're gonna respect that, stay out their way. But with Shelton, it's different. I can crack a joke here and there, he['s] laughing. Then he cracks one on me, and you're laughing. You know sometimes the whole team is laughing because he don't mind putting me on blast in front of everybody. So, I'm all for it."
Wait, who is putting who on blast? Dyson or Shelton?
"Combination of both," Dyson said. "Sometimes he will kick it off, so I ain't going to let you get me without coming back."
That type of banter isn't just to entertain the veteran player during summer camp. It creates a looser atmosphere, which Dyson believes benefits the younger players.
Shelton wants to be accessible. For example, the Pirates recently gave a peek into his new office, showing off neon signage and autographed memorabilia from Bill Mazeroski, Manny Sanguillen and Rod Carew. What they didn't show was maybe the most symbolic addition: A large window.
Hall of Fame additions to @derekshelton’s office.
Whatcha think, @Twins? pic.twitter.com/3HSECLlBdP
— Pirates (@Pirates) July 14, 2020
Shelton has preached the importance of building relationships and building a player-centric culture since his hiring. It's not just lip service, and the team appreciates it.
"That's how you get the most out of your guys," Dyson said. "You don't want no guy whose MF'ing the manager after the meeting, stuff like that. You don't want that. You want a guy who's gonna respect their manager and respect the fact that their manager has a feel for the game and understands how hard the game is, and it's ok to have fun."
On Saturday, Shelton will begin his second turn as a manager, this time in the majors, facing the Indians in an exhibition at PNC Park. The two clubs will end up play three warm-up games before the Pirates open the regular season in St. Louis on July 24.
He's waited a long time for this. It's been a long enough wait in 2020 alone. The COVID-19 pandemic caused spring training to be suspended and the regular season to be delayed March 12. Even when camp resumed, their first intrasquad game on July 9 was called on account of rain.
“I can’t even manage an intrasquad,” Shelton jokingly lamented that day. “I can’t even get an intrasquad game in.”
The Pirates have gotten some intrasquads in since then, though the rain has made them rework their schedule a couple times. There's a whole lot more baseball on the horizon, too, and a lot more chances to build that culture.
Shelton has acknowledged that's going to take awhile to do, but even back during spring training in Bradenton, Fla., there was a different energy in the clubhouse. After 3 1/2 months away, that's carried over to PNC Park.
"It’s something we’ve talked about since the first day in this room," Shelton said Monday, alluding to the press conference room he was doing his Zoom call from. He held his introductory press conference there in December, too. "We want to have fun and we want to adjust the culture.
"Not only are they really good at what they do, they genuinely like each other. They like being around each other. You see that energy with our group. To see [Guillermo] Heredia run down the line on two ground balls to [major-league assistant] Tim [McKeithan] later in the game tonight … it shows not only are these guys buying in, but they’re playing the right way."
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