Pirates/MLB category, Page 242
Oscar Marin ‘super excited’ for opportunity to coach Pirates pitchers
Oscar Marin, even during a phone call from another country, made it clear how enthusiastic he is to join the Pittsburgh Pirates. The team announced Marin’s hiring as pitching coach Tuesday, a day after news broke the Texas Rangers bullpen coach was tabbed to replace Ray Searage. The Pirates also...
Pirates officially tab Oscar Marin as pitching coach
Oscar Marin, who has been a pitching instructor at many levels since 2010, was officially named Pittsburgh Pirates pitching coach Tuesday morning by general manager Ben Cherington. Marin, 37, spent last season as the bullpen coach with the Texas Rangers. He served the Seattle Mariners in 2017 and 2018 as...
Tim Benz: Pirates need to let manager Derek Shelton truly be in charge
A frequent criticism of the Pittsburgh Pirates in recent years has been that the franchise employed one of the most expensive managers in Major League Baseball but had one of the lowest payrolls. In August 2018, USA Today published a deep dive into why managerial contracts were dipping. Clint Hurdle’s...
Sources: Pirates to hire Oscar Marin as pitching coach
The trend in the major leagues recently has been for teams to hire pitching coaches with varied backgrounds who haven’t necessarily played professional baseball. That fits the description of Oscar Marin, whom the Pirates will hire as their pitching coach. Two baseball sources confirmed to the Tribune-Review on Monday that...
Pirates sign catcher Luke Maile
The Pirates added a player at a position of desperate need Monday, signing free agent catcher Luke Maile to a one-year major league contract. Maile, 28, is known as a strong defensive catcher who hasn’t hit much in parts of five big league seasons. For his career, he’s a .198...
Pirates’ Gregory Polanco will be OK for spring training, but shoulder will need monitoring
Pittsburgh Pirates right fielder Gregory Polanco’s extended recovery from shoulder surgery continues, but he should have no restrictions when he reports to spring training. But that doesn’t mean his shoulder problems are finished. Todd Tomczyk, the Pirates’ director of sports medicine, said Polanco’s shoulder will require regular management, possibly including...
Pirates hoping to fill pitching coach position ‘sooner rather than later’
The Pittsburgh Pirates are looking for a pitching coach for the first time since 2010. Ray Searage was promoted from assistant coach in August that year to replace the fired Joe Kerrigan. Searage then spent the next nine seasons overseeing the pitching staff. However, Searage was fired at the end...
3-batter rule could be 1 more challenge for Pirates rookie manager Derek Shelton
Unless Rob Manfred has a change of heart, it will be a rule change that has the greatest effect on how managers deploy their personnel in more than four decades. MLB’s commissioner said this past week during the winter meetings in San Diego a rule requiring pitchers to face at...
Pirates wrap up Winter Meetings with trade possibilities on the horizon
SAN DIEGO — Ben Cherington left his first Winter Meetings as general manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates on Thursday without making trade. However, it seems likely center fielder Starling Marte will be with another team by the time spring training opens in mid-February. Second baseman Adam Frazier could also be...
Pirates GM Ben Cherington sticks with ‘authentic’ approach while retaining coaches, scouts
SAN DIEGO — There is a certain segment of fans and media members who have advocated that the Pittsburgh Pirates fire everyone. Owner Bob Nutting has done his share of firing since the end of a season in which the Pirates had a 69-93 record and finished last in the...
New Pirates GM Cherington, manager Shelton confident in Kelly’s ability as bench coach
SAN DIEGO — Don Kelly won’t be the prototypical bench coach for the Pittsburgh Pirates. The former Mt. Lebanon and Point Park standout, who was hired last Saturday, has only one year of coaching experience at any level of baseball. He was the Houston Astros first-base coach last season. However,...
Pirates manager Derek Shelton getting to know organization at winter meetings
SAN DIEGO — Derek Shelton knew who he wanted to go to for advice. Soon after Shelton was hired as the Pittsburgh Pirates’ manager two weeks ago, he got in touch with Jim Leyland. Though Shelton only knew Leyland in passing, he thought the former Pirates manager was the perfect...
First Call: Le’Veon Bell brags about bowling, Antonio Brown’s new song, potential Starling Marte trade partnerVideo
In “First Call” Wednesday, Le’Veon Bell brags about his bowling night out, Antonio Brown tries his hand at music, and a logical trade partner for Starling Marte emerges. Bell’s bowling boast Steelers Hall of Famer Jerome Bettis was renowned as a great bowler, with a perfect game under his belt....
Catcher at top of Pirates’ wish list
SAN DIEGO — It doesn’t take a deep dive into the Pittsburgh Pirates roster to determine the area that lacks depth. Jacob Stallings is the only catcher on the 40-man. Stallings, who turns 30 later this month, has played just 95 games and accumulated 282 plate appearances in four major...
PiratesFest date finalized for PNC Park
PiratesFest will return to PNC Park on Jan. 25, with autograph sessions — free and otherwise — and appearances by team executives and past and present players. The all-day event will include several activities for season-ticket holders and others, beginning at 9 a.m. and continuing until 5 p.m. Admission is...
New GM Ben Cherington: Pirates open to trading any player
SAN DIEGO — It remains to be seen if Ben Cherington will make the first splash move of his nascent career as the Pittsburgh Pirates general manager during the winter meetings. The four-day event started Monday at the Manchester Hyatt, and there wasn’t even a trace of a rumor involving...
Time as Pirates GM special for new Hall of Famer Ted Simmons
SAN DIEGO — Ted Simmons is now a Hall of Famer, being elected by the Hall’s Modern-Day Era Committee on Sunday night for his stellar career as a switch-hitting catcher. In the years after amassing 2,472 hits and making eight All-Star Games during his 21-year career, Simmons had a 1½-year...
John Steigerwald: Gerrit Cole situation a sobering reminder for Pirates
The Pittsburgh Pirates are excited about having a new general manager and a new manager. Maybe some fans are, too. Meanwhile, the New York Yankees are the favorites to sign Gerrit Cole as a free agent. According to the New York Post, it’ll be a shock if they don’t. Yankees...
Pirates manager Derek Shelton anticipates adjustments to NLVideo
Derek Shelton believes every step of his coaching career prepared him to become the Pittsburgh Pirates manager, from serving as Tampa’s hitting coach to Toronto’s quality control coach to Minnesota’s bench coach. The only exception for Shelton is his background was strictly with American League teams, so he’s expecting an...
Winter meetings could kick-start offseason plans for new Pirates management
Ben Cherington drew an interesting football analogy to his new job in baseball earlier this week. The Pittsburgh Pirates’ general manager said when he was hired Nov. 18, he felt like a quarterback backed up on his 1-yard line. Nearly three weeks later, Cherington feels like he at least has...
Former Mt. Lebanon, Point Park star Don Kelly named Pirates bench coach
The Pittsburgh Pirates stayed in town for their bench coach. Don Kelly was hired to be new manager Derek Shelton’s right-hand man Saturday. Kelly starred at Mt. Lebanon and Point Park and lives in Mars with his wife Carrie — sister of former Pirates second baseman Neil Walker — and...
A Pirate, a few Steelers and a movie star go to Penguins gameVideo
Pirates pitcher Joe Musgrove is becoming something of a tour guide for Pittsburgh. On Tuesday, the day before Derek Shelton was officially introduced as the Pirates new manager, Musgrove took him out for lunch at Primanti’s in the Strip District. Before you ask, yeah he's been there. Yesterday, @ItsbuccnJoe59 took...
Confident Pirates legend Dave Parker to soon find out if Baseball Hall calls
Dave Parker will find out Sunday if his latest bid to be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame is successful. If it were up to Parker, he already would have a spot in Cooperstown, N.Y. Somehow, that is not a surprising thought coming from one of the most...
Pirates manager Derek Shelton’s path guided by ‘hard-nosed’ competitivenessVideo
Ron and Kathy Shelton never needed a babysitter. Almost from the first day he could stand, young Derek always was next to his dad, who was a prominent high school baseball and basketball coach in Illinois for 25 years. “That was our babysitter, the ball,” Derek Shelton said. Ron Shelton...
Pirates legend Bill Mazeroski putting personal memorabilia up for auction
When Bill Mazeroski smashed a walk-off home run over Forbes Field’s left field wall, he not only secured the 1960 World Series crown for the Pirates but claimed a top spot in Pittsburgh sports history. His hit and jubilant celebration as he rounded the bases still stand as one of...
