Despite an ugly month of August in which the Pirates went 8-19 and dropped out of playoff contention, Ben Cherington said he fully expects Derek Shelton to return as manager in 2025.
"I think there’s a lot to the job I believe he does really, really well and I also believe he works his tail off to continue to improve in a number of ways. Seeing that, I believe he’s the right person to manage this team in 2025, so I fully expect that will happen," Cherington said during his Wednesday morning media availability. "As we would in every season, we will get to the end of the season and have an opportunity to look at the entire group and decide, again consistent with the point about faster improvement and more improvement, if any adjustments are necessary to give ourselves a better chance to do that. This staff works as hard as any in baseball and I know cares as much as any in baseball. Really love working with them and we all know we need to get better. We’ll get to the end of the season and spend more time on that.”
In 691 career games as manager of the Pirates, Shelton has posted a 287-404 record (.415 winning percentage) over five seasons, including the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign. This year, the Pirates are 69-76 and currently sit in last place in the National League Central standings. The results certainly haven't been ideal in Year 5 of a rebuild in which last year's 76-win output was the high point, but Cherington said his confidence in Shelton and his staff stems from their overall work ethic, care level and dedication to showing up every day looking for ways to improve.
"It's not perfect. We make mistakes. We're constantly trying to figure out how to get better and close any gaps we have," Cherington said. "But at a high level, I've been in this game for 30 years, this staff cares as much and works as hard as any I've ever been around and I believe they're really skilled. And like I said, we gotta get better and we're responsible for that. Ultimately I'm accountable for that."
When asked about the importance of continuity in the decision making process regarding personnel, Cherington said it can have real value if evidence exists that improvement is happening under the watch of an individual person or group. Competency, care level, work ethic and values have to be in place, too. As he did during his weekly radio show on Sunday, Cherington reiterated that while he believes the team improved this season, that improvement isn't happening quick enough. There's shared responsibility in that.
“I’m the leader of baseball ops, so I’ll take the first part of the accountability. Look at myself in the mirror first and foremost before anything else and, yes, there’s shared responsibility across baseball ops, with our players, with our staff," Cherington said. "We’re all responsible for it and we all have to be willing to look at ourselves and how do we get better. I’m confident that’s exactly what’s happening and we’ll continue to do that.”
MORE FROM CHERINGTON
• Cherington said there are currently three leadership openings in their research and development department, international and pro group. It had already been reported that Junior Vizcaino will not return as director of international scouting. Per sources, Sean Ahmed resigned from his position as director of research and development and Will Lawton, the director of pro scouting, is being re-assigned to a different role within with the organization. Filling those roles will be a point of emphasis for the next couple of weeks, Cherington said.
“Those are three openings and there are different reasons for each of those openings. They just happened to come roughly at the same time," Cherington said. "I do believe that it's an opportunity for us overall in baseball operations to continue to strengthen and improve. I'm excited about that. We've made a good amount of change across baseball operations in the last several years. Change is going to be constant. This is the change that's happening this year."
• After the promotion of Billy Cook, Cherington said there have been discussions regarding additional call ups before the major-league season comes to an end, but no decisions have been made yet: "Indy still has games to play, and again, you're just weighing, want to make sure players are playing and there are only so many spots on this roster, so many spots in the lineup. If we make a change and bring a player here, is there enough playing time? Who loses playing time? Weighing all that stuff, so wouldn't rule it out. Still talking about it but haven't got to it yet."
• Cherington on Oneil Cruz's transition to center field: "Really encouraged. Positive. We're seeing in the underlying metrics, in terms of how he moves toward baseballs, it's about what we had hoped for. The raw speed is playing out. He's getting to baseballs in either direction at a level that compares to major-league center fielders. He's made routine plays. There's more work to do and he of course knows that. It's a new position so the communication element is still something he's gonna work on. I anticipate that to happen in spring training. We're not going to solve all of that this year. He's learning how to use his throwing weapon. He's got a weapon on his arm and he's still learning how to use that in center field. If you had asked me, if the two things that are noticeable are communication and knowing where to throw, I think we would've said A. Not surprising that we'd see those things and B. That's good, because those things will improve naturally with work and focus. Overall, we've been very encouraged."
There haven't yet been any discussions regarding the possibility of Cruz playing winter ball, Cherington said.
"He's obviously a native of the DR, so players like that have some rights and we'll get into that with Oneil at our end of the season meeting with him. Haven't talked about it with him yet," Cherington said. "Personally, I don't feel like it's absolutely necessary. He's gonna get good reps this year. He's played mostly a full season, coming off a missed season. There's benefits to training and doing stuff there too. But we haven't talked about it yet. We will at the end of the season."
• Cherington on Andrew McCutchen and the possibility of him returning to the Pirates in 2025: "He's proving again this year that he can hit and hit at a level that helps us win games. I would just repeat what I said before. We would love to find a way for Andrew to finish his career in a Pirates uniform. Glad he feels good, feels like he can still do that and still play. As I did last year, as we get to the end of the season, we'll have a conversation with Andrew after the season's over."
• The Pirates came into this season believing the bullpen could be a strength. Individual arms have certainly had their better moments, but the collective group has ultimately struggled in ranking 27th in MLB in ERA (4.66), 28th in WHIP (1.40) and allowing the fourth-most earned runs in all of baseball.
"I think that's certainly an area that we need to see improvement from, part of the improvement that we need to find and get to faster is more consistent performance from that group," Cherington said. "Look, we came into the season, I know I said it, I believed that that could be a strength. And, it just hasn't been to the level that we thought it could be. Got to figure that out. Got to be willing to examine everything that's going into that. Believe there's talent there. We believe there's talent in the pen right now, talent that could make up a really good pen. But, we haven't performed at the level we need to, so we have to figure that out."
