Despite 100-loss season, Pirates GM calls manager Derek Shelton 'an incredible partner'

When Ben Cherington addressed another 100-loss season by the Pittsburgh Pirates, the third-year general manager didn’t make any promises about future payroll or player acquisitions.

What Cherington did make clear is he remains in lockstep with manager Derek Shelton, saying he “loved working with” the coaching staff, and the only changes he expects would be “additive.”

“He’s been an incredible partner to me,” Cherington said of Shelton on Friday morning in a news conference. “It’s been difficult. We are both miserable after losses. That also helps us focus on what we need to do (with) each other and for each other to make it better. I’m confident we will.”

Shelton, 52, has a .370 winning percentage (142-242) in three seasons as Pirates manager, although his first year was shortened to 60 games because of the covid pandemic. The Pirates followed a 101-loss season in 2021 by going 62-100 this season, their first back-to-back seasons with 100 or more losses since the early 1950s.

Pirates GM Ben Cherington on how he evaluates manager Derek Shelton, who has a .370 winning percentage in three seasons. pic.twitter.com/bEZ65MzKa4

— Kevin Gorman (@KevinGormanPGH) October 14, 2022

Cherington said he focuses less on the results and standings — noting “some nights, we’re in a position where the deck is stacked against us a little bit” — and more on the positive impact Shelton has made on one of the youngest clubs in the major leagues.

Cherington credited Shelton for the way the Pirates have competed, despite the trades of All-Stars Starling Marte, Josh Bell and Adam Frazier and Opening Day pitchers Joe Musgrove and Jameson Taillon, with a roster largely made up of rookies and waiver claims.

Pirates GM Ben Cherington credits manager Derek Shelton with creating a culture of accountability. pic.twitter.com/C7knN3ZoVD

— Kevin Gorman (@KevinGormanPGH) October 14, 2022

“I really believe that, despite the difficult times we’re going through, that the effort has been there on the field, that the team is fighting, that the team is playing hard, the team is competing until the last pitch in almost every case,” Cherington said. “That is not to be taken for granted because it doesn’t always happen that way on teams that are in this difficult time. That reflects well on Shelty and the staff, certainly.”

One important element of Cherington’s support is the change in clubhouse culture. He pointed out Shelton can’t individually coach all of the hitters, pitchers and position players but has been influential in creating an environment where players arrive early to seek individual instruction from coaches.

“That probably relates to the cultural piece of leading a culture in that clubhouse that is about accountability and getting better every day and having the toughness to get better every day and being accountable to each other as teammates, too, to push each other, to get better every day and stick with each other,” Cherington said. “I believe we’re seeing a good signal on that too. That, itself, is a process that takes time.

“I believe trust is being built inside that room. It’s never a straight line, but we see it growing. I believe it’s growing over time. I think it comes out in the way we play, in the way that guys talk to each other and the way guys talk publicly and in improvement that we’re seeing even though we know it’s not clearly enough. There’s a lot to do to get better.”

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• Ben Cherington’s challenge: Build Pirates into a winner while sustaining strong farm system

That includes improved play at multiple positions. Where most of the lineup is penciled in, third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes and center fielder Bryan Reynolds were written in permanent marker after the 2021 season. Cherington declined to put any new names in ink, though he did acknowledge first base, catcher and the pitching staff — the starting rotation and bullpen — are positions of priority this offseason.

Cherington said Pirates chairman Bob Nutting and team president Travis Williams have been “incredibly supportive” of the rebuilding plan recommended by Cherington and his baseball operations staff. The plan has required a teardown through trades of veterans for prospects to stock the farm system, with the expectation that ownership will provide the resources to spend on salaries when the Pirates appear ready to contend.

Even so, Cherington wouldn’t address what the potential payroll will look like in 2023 after the Pirates started the 2022 season at $55,761,800 to rank 28th out of 30 teams. Cherington expects to fill holes through trades and free agency and didn’t rule out the possibility of signing free-agent pitchers to contracts longer than the one-year deals they gave to left-handers Derek Holland, Tyler Anderson and Jose Quintana.

Cherington was emphatic that, if the Pirates are going to build a winner, it’s mostly going to come from within.

“I don’t believe that focusing on payroll is the right thing to focus on in a town like Pittsburgh, in a place where a winning team is not going to be built in a way that it is in other places,” Cherington said. “I understand where the question comes from, but, the way we wake up every day and do our work, it’s just not the thing that we think about.

“Expect the payroll to increase over time. I can’t tell you right now what it’s going to be next year or what it’s going to be after that. It’s also not what we focus on, mostly. We know that it’s up to us to execute a team-building process that builds a winning team that you have to do it in a place like Pittsburgh. And that’s being done in other places.

“We see models that, right now in the playoffs, we can look to. We focus on those things that we know we can control in baseball operations to get us closer to that. I really believe that we have the resources to win and that, once we start winning, we’ll be able to sustain that. It’s up to us to execute that.”