After year of adjustments, Shelton bracing for 2021 challenges

The 2020 Major League Baseball season will live in infamy for how drastically different it was, implementing new rules on and off the field, expanding rosters and shortening the season to just 60 games.

It doesn’t look like 2021 is going to be exactly normal, either.

Per a report by Bob Nightengale Tuesday, MLB executives and owners would like players to be vaccinated for COVID-19 before they arrive to spring training, which could push the start of the regular season back to May. Rumors of a possible delay to the season have been floating for some time, and with players scheduled to report to spring training in two months, the threat of a delay is growing.

Just another year managing the ball club, right, Derek Shelton?

"I kind of figured this is just how it is,” Shelton said, laughing, during a Zoom call with local reporters Tuesday.

Joking aside, the offseason is at about its midpoint, and there are far more questions surrounding the future than definitive answers.

“I don't like to live in speculation, and we live in a lot of speculation with the way the world is right now and how we're going,” Shelton said. “General frameworks are really good and conversations are really good. The one thing it does do is it gives myself and the baseball ops [operations] group and the staff a ton of opportunities to talk through multiple scenarios, and then as we get closer, we get to put those in place."

Coaches have been in contact with players this offseason, as managing workloads and making sure they are ready to play a longer season will be key.

Shelton said health is at the forefront of their concerns, especially for pitchers. It is even more prudent for those coming off injuries, whether it is Tommy John surgery, like Jameson Taillon, or other ailments that limited their innings in 2020, like what happened to Joe Musgrove and Mitch Keller.

“We're planning on playing 162 games,” Shelton said. “I don't know if that's gonna happen. I don't know when spring training's gonna happen. I hope it starts on time.”

In the field, one of the biggest uncertainties is whether or not the National League designated hitter will remain in place. Ben Cherington has said he is assuming there is no DH until he is explicitly told by the league.

While Shelton originally wanted to use the DH to rotate players out of the field but keep their bat in the lineup, Colin Moran and Josh Bell wound up splitting their playing time between there and first base. Without a DH, it leaves the Pirates with one corner infielder too many.

“We have two really good bats there,” Shelton said. “That's going to be a challenge without the DH. We may have to get creative at times in terms of how we functionally use those guys.”

It Shelton has any advantage, it’s that he and his staff have been through these challenges before. They navigated last season without a major outbreak within the clubhouse and played through the entire season.

They know to expect the unexpected.

“You can never plan your day out, especially in a year where you’re dealing with a pandemic," Shelton said. “It continually changes. From talking to other managers now at the end of the season, they kind of outlined that you don’t really ever know that until you live it. You can line up what you think is going to happen and how it’s going to go. But five or six people could walk into your office, there could be an injury, there could be something else that happens that you have to deal with. So the ability to adjust on the fly, specifically with what your day is like, is probably something that really stands out.”

More from Shelton.

• After stressing the importance of players having opportunities to prove themselves in 2020, Shelton brought up the importance of “meritocracy” for the 2021 club and how there will be "competition everywhere" for playing time next year.

Shelton has a few guys penciled into his lineup. Ke’Bryan Hayes will be at third. Gold Glove runner-ups Jacob Stallings and Adam Frazier will be at catcher and second base. The organization has, on multiple occasions, affirmed that Gregory Polanco will be in right.

Even if a handful of spots spoken for, there will be plenty up for grabs, including shortstop, where Kevin Newman, Erik Gonzalez and Cole Tucker will be battling for time there or in other spots in the field.

“If you’re playing well and doing a good job, you’re probably going to continue to get opportunities,” Shelton said. “We’re in a situation where we want to get better. We need to get better. So we will take each opportunity individually, but competition is a healthy thing. I think it brings out the best in people.”

• Taillon is going into spring training as a starter. That's a rarity for players coming off a second Tommy John surgery, but Taillon worked very hard during his rehab and reworked his throwing mechanics to take better care of his arm.

"I’m excited for it," Shelton said. "He’s excited. His throwing’s going well, his rehab’s going well. He tackled it head on and did about as good of a job as anybody can do."

Taillon has been sending Shelton video of him throwing every three days, and has posted a fair amount of them on social media too:

• The entire coaching staff is returning for next year, with Shelton saying it was "extremely important" there was some continuity rather than having a revolving door of coaches for a second straight year.

That includes hitting coaches Rick Eckstein and Mike Rabelo, who oversaw an offense that finished in many offensive categories and had players regress seriously in the shortened season. Shelton, a longtime hitting coach himself, knows the frustrations of being a hitting coach, and voiced his optimism that the group can bounce back.

"When you have guys that struggle, it wears on you a little bit," Shelton said. "Rick went home, took a little time to reflect, we sat down and talked, and we have a clear plan of what we’re going to do with our group and how we’re going to go about it.

"Rick Eckstein’s a good hitting coach, and I think you guys saw that the year before I got here. He’s shown that previously. We had some guys that had difficult years last year. I think some of it had to do with second or third yera in the league. Some of it had to do with they got off to tough starts, and they didn’t feel like they had enough time to build it up, but I’m happy with the plan that we’ve created going into the offseason and look forward to Rick and Rabs executing it."

• The 2020 season brought many rule changes, some of which Shelton liked (seven inning doubleheaders), some he didn't (three batter minimum).

One that he didn't expect to like were the changes to extra innings, though he would like to tweak it.

"I think that the 10th inning should be played straight up, and after that, if they want to do something else, I'm all for that. I do think the strategy of the 10th inning is extremely important."

• From his introductory press conference a little over a year ago, Shelton has talked about improving the culture of his team. That can be difficult to do when the club is losing, but he was encouraged with the work his players put in. Other managers took notice, too.

"I had one manager even tell me that he felt our guys were relentless at times," Shelton said.

The instance of that culture being built that stuck with Shelton was in Mitch Keller's last start of the season. He was wild, but had a no-hitter in the sixth. His pitch count was up and he needed to be taken out. 

But on the way to do it, other pitchers tried to get between Shelton and Keller, trying to convince him to stay in the game.

"The fact that that group of guys felt that comfortable to be like, 'Hey, No. 1, we can do this with the manager' No. 2 They knew he was coming out but No. 3 They were so engaged in that, that made me step away and be like, 'we are developing the right culture, we are developing the right things here and it's only going to continue to get better.' And more importantly, the players are involved in it. They have a say in it. And that's kind of what we set out to do."