Kevin Gorman's Take 5: By keeping Don Kelly, the Pirates opt for continuity over change
After a season of moves that made little sense, it was only fitting that the Pittsburgh Pirates chose to extend the contract of manager Don Kelly on a day that three MLB teams terminated their skippers.
That’s not to suggest that keeping Kelly as manager on a permanent basis isn’t the right move. He’s a Mt. Lebanon and Point Park alum who played for the Pirates, so he’s invested in their success.
Kelly showed he could do the job at a high level when he inherited a team mired in misery and used his positivity and communication skills to get the Pirates to go 32-33 after the All-Star break.
Of course, playing .500 ball got two managers fired.
The Texas Rangers (81-81) fired Bruce Bochy, only two years removed from winning the World Series. The San Francisco Giants (81-81) fired Bob Melvin, despite picking up his option in July. And the Minnesota Twins (70-92) fired Rocco Baldelli, who had won three American League Central Division titles in his seven seasons.
A day after the Pirates finished 71-91, there was talk of setting standards, shifting the focus to execution and delivering wins. After finishing in last place in the National League Central for the sixth time in seven seasons — a streak interrupted only by a fourth-place finish in 2023 — they talked about bringing playoff baseball back to Pittsburgh.
That the Pirates are bringing back team president Travis Williams and general manager Ben Cherington and extending Kelly is a sign that club chairman Bob Nutting chose continuity over change.
Cherington called such a suggestion a bonus, not a reason.
“A manager’s too important a role for that to be driving a decision,” Cherington said. “It’s a bonus. But what’s the driving decision were all the things we talked about. The combination of the credibility, the trust (Kelly) has in the clubhouse and the organization, his tenacity, his extreme will to win, willingness to do everything possible to do that. There’s a lot more. There’s a lot that goes into him being the right person for the job. As an added bonus, that there’s continuity, because it just helps us hit the ground running really fast.”
An admission by chairman Bob Nutting that “we fell short as an organization both on and off the field” and calling the season “unacceptable” in a statement rang hollow — especially considering he was nowhere to be seen Monday at PNC Park.
By the time the Pirates fired Derek Shelton on May 8, amid a 12-26 start, they were already 10 games out of first place in the division. The players responded to Kelly and went 59-65 the remainder of the season but finished 26 games behind the Milwaukee Brewers for the division lead and 12 games back in the wild-card standings.
“Results are the only thing that matter,” Nutting said in the statement. “We owe it to our fans, to the city, and to the legacy of this team to get it right. Ben and everyone in the organization fully understands what is expected, and that the work ahead demands urgency. Today’s announcement of Donnie is the first of many steps we will take this offseason to bring winning baseball back to Pittsburgh.”
1. Exit interviews: Kelly joked that the only time he received an exit interview while playing for Hall of Fame manager Jim Leyland was when he was being “exited” to the minor leagues.
But Cherington indicated Sunday on his weekly radio show that the exit interviews with Pirates players provided valuable insight into Kelly’s managerial style and were “symbolic of the job he’s done to build trust.”
“You can kind of tell, in terms of the amount of ease in which players are sharing information. It says something to me about the relationship between the player and the manager,” Cherington said on 93.7 FM. “I’ve been doing these for 30 years. If you have guys that are tightening up and not saying much, it does say something — there’s something here that the player is not quite comfortable sharing what’s on their mind. We got a lot of information this week. Guys were really comfortable to share. That’s exactly why we do them.”
2. The hardest stuff: On Monday, Cherington downplayed the importance of the exit interviews on the Pirates’ decision to extend Kelly. That’s understandable, as it was a decision made by the front office, not the clubhouse.
But Cherington reinforced another point he made on his radio show. The Pirates were intentional in not placing the interim tag on Kelly. That his permanence was only through the remainder of the season didn’t stop him from taking the reins.
“It’s a lot that’s led us to that clarity, but one that thing stood out, clearly to me, is that he was so willing to go after the hardest stuff and he was effective going after the hardest stuff,” Cherington said, “and I’m talking about standards and holding the team to a standard, holding me to a standard, holding individual people and players to a standard, holding the culture to a standard.”
3. Speaking of standards: Williams touted the obvious signs of progress, from having the NL Cy Young favorite in Paul Skenes leading a talented, young pitching staff to a top-five farm system headlined by baseball’s top prospect in Konnor Griffin.
Williams also acknowledged that the Pirates “had a historically bad offensive year, but those are things that can be course-corrected and we believe we have the ability to do that this offseason.”
While Williams refused to discuss payroll, he was adamant that the Pirates will provide “sufficient” resources to improve the roster.
“We’ve given ourselves the flexibility at the trade deadline in terms of payroll, and we believe that we have the ability to go out and add,” Williams said. “And we have pitching depth that we can use in order to turn that into hitting depth.”
That gave a glimpse into how the Pirates intend to acquire bats.
4. Talking traits: Cherington contends that the Pirates are continuing to learn what type of identity they want for their offense after finishing last in the majors in runs, home runs, RBIs, slugging percentage and OPS.
And it’s not by throwing money at stars in free agency.
“I really do think we are getting clearer on the types of traits in hitters that we’re making a bet on,” Cherington said. “In Pittsburgh, we need to be making bets on guys who are not proven. We may be able to make some bets on guys that are proven, and we’ll pursue that, too, but some of the targets have to be guys who are unproven.”
That’s Cherington’s way of saying he’s more likely seeking to uncover another Spencer Horwitz than to sign Eugenio Suarez. The question is, what are the Pirates willing to give up? Are they more likely to trade a veteran starting pitcher, like Mitch Keller or Johan Oviedo, or one of their young arms?
5. Every single day: As much as Cherington talks about Kelly’s tireless work ethic, what stood out in his news conference was his passion for the Pirates and relentless pursuit of winning.
Every single day could be the team’s motto, for as often as Kelly repeated it.
When Kelly took over for Shelton, it was a pinch-me moment where he talked about going from trick-or-treating at Jim Leyland’s house in Mt. Lebanon as a kid to following in his footsteps in becoming Pirates manager.
On Monday, Kelly talked about meeting Francisco Cabrera at spring training with the Detroit Tigers and reminding the former Atlanta Braves hero of how much he is reviled in Pittsburgh for driving in Sid Bream to win Game 7 of the 1992 NLCS.
“I made sure I told him that he ripped my heart out in that moment,” Kelly said. “That was gut-wrenching. That’s something that still drives me. I was 12 years old when that happened, and it still drives me to this day. I understand Pittsburgh fans because I am one. They’re passionate. They’re relentless. It’s going to be on both sides. I know that when we are winning here in Pittsburgh, the fans are going to be there. We also hear it whenever we’re not doing the things that we need to do.
“That’s what drives me, that is what drives us every single day to be the best version of ourselves, to be the best version out on the field and to work tirelessly towards bringing winning baseball back to Pittsburgh, which we are going to do.”
If Kelly can translate that passion into getting his team to play with a relentless identity, the Pirates will have found the right manager.
“We’ve taken strides this year in doing that,” Kelly said. “We are certainly not there yet. We are on the track to get there. But we are on the way and I think that the culture in the clubhouse, the players’ commitment to each other, to winning and, honestly, in representing Pittsburgh in the right way.”
Kevin Gorman is a TribLive reporter covering the Pirates. A Baldwin native and Penn State graduate, he joined the Trib in 1999 and has covered high school sports, Pitt football and basketball and was a sports columnist for 10 years. He can be reached at kgorman@triblive.com.
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