Despite disappointing season, Ben Cherington operating with plans to return as Pirates GM

In a season that started with the proclamation by chairman Bob Nutting that the Pittsburgh Pirates “need to win more,” they instead clinched a seventh consecutive losing season and are careening toward 90 losses.

Yet when Ben Cherington was asked Saturday afternoon in the news conference room at PNC Park whether he expects to return next season, the Pirates general manager answered in the affirmative.

“I’m certainly doing the job that way,” said Cherington, who is believed to have two years remaining on his contract. “We talk all the time. Haven’t heard anything to the contrary. I don’t know if any of us in this room ever have full assurance of anything, but I want to help the Pirates win more games. That’s it. I don’t do the job because of the job. I do the job because I want to be a part of making this thing work. Winning more games and being able to leave PNC Park at night feeling better and everybody feeling better. That’s why I do it. I still want to do it. I badly want to do it.”

Cherington said he expects there to be changes in baseball operations this offseason, although not as many in leadership roles after the Pirates hired new directors of their farm system, pro and international scouting and research and development last year.

Whether manager Don Kelly — who replaced Derek Shelton when he was fired May 8 following a 12-26 start — will return remains to be seen. Cherington said the Pirates will wait until the conclusion of their season for a full assessment of Kelly, who has led the Pirates to a 53-63 record (.457 winning percentage) since taking over the top step. The Pirates, however, had lost 12 of their past 13 games entering Saturday.

“My view of the job that Donnie’s done is one that’s not surprising to me. I had confidence when he took the job in May that he would do a really good job,” Cherington said. “He’s an excellent communicator. He’s dogged in his approach to the job. He has a high self-belief. He believes in people. I said before I believe he cares about other people more than he cares about himself. He’s got a lot of really, really strong qualities for the job, and I’ve seen that play out.

“I’ve been particularly impressed by his willingness to go after some really hard things, too. Consistent with what we both agree we need to do more consistently to win more games. Of course, you would expect a manager to do that, but it’s not easy when you don’t have the full mandate of the permanent job to do that. He’s done it anyway. I’ve been particularly impressed with that.”

If that doesn’t sound like a ringing endorsement for Kelly, perhaps it’s because it came a year after Cherington gave Shelton a vote of confidence and recommended his return. Cherington called Shelton “the right person to manage this team,” despite a 10-game losing streak in August that knocked the Pirates out of playoff contention.

“I don’t regret it. We learn from everything,” Cherington said. “At the time, based on the information I had, I felt like that was the right recommendation for the Pirates, and we also learned from it and I learned from it. We got into the season and felt like we had to make a change. Learn from everything, get better, take responsibility. Don’t regret the recommendation.”

Cherington said he has sleepless nights about the Pirates’ struggles this season, emphasizing the need to score more runs. They rank last in the major leagues with 548 runs — 33 fewer than the 42-win Colorado Rockies — and also are at baseball’s bottom in home runs, RBIs, slugging percentage and OPS, among the major offensive categories.

“I think there’s always more than one thing, but the easiest thing to say is we got to score more runs at the major-league level in Pittsburgh. That’s simple,” Cherington said. “I think we’re still capable of playing a more consistent, smarter brand of baseball day-to-day. We’ve seen that in stretches. It’s something Donnie preaches all the time. He’s right on top of it. To some extent, the roster itself has to be put together in a way that allows that to happen.”

Cherington believes he can use a deeper farm system — the Pirates moved from middle of the pack to No. 2 by Baseball America and No. 8 by MLB Pipeline — to acquire hitters through trades. With a strong starting rotation, a solid bullpen and several pieces with position players, Cherington expects them to be contenders next season.

“It’s painful to watch the games the last stretch because it’s not reflective, I don’t believe, of how close we are and how close we can be,” Cherington said. “With that said, you can’t just hope it’s going to happen. There’s going to be some really important work we need to do to make it happen next year. …

“We should be adding to the team if we can and be aggressive within reason, I believe. There’s an opportunity, with the manager position and everything around that, there’s an opportunity to really have a culture that feels different going into next year. I think for all those reasons, I do believe we are closer than our recent stretch suggests, maybe closer than some people think. But talk’s cheap. Got to go do it.”