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 reported $3 million salary was estimated to have put him among the seven highest-paid managers in the sport. Meanwhile, the Pirates were 26th in payroll at $84.5 million.

That gap seemed all the more curious when the club’s payroll dropped to $76 million this past season.

Even more odd was that the notoriously frugal Pirates ownership, which is loath to outspend the norm, was willing in 2017 to invest so much in a contract extension for a veteran manager who was in the midst of a second straight losing season. And that was during a time when the managerial position was being devalued.

As Bob Nightengale wrote in that USA Today story, “These days, there are plenty of managers who have little or no control of their daily lineups and little involvement with personnel decisions.”

Nightengale quoted Joe Maddon, then manager of the Chicago Cubs, as describing an MLB manager as being “a Sarah Huckabee-type position,’’ referring to the White House press secretary at the time.

In other words, as a manager, you are the public face, taking the all of the questions for things that may have gone wrong.

Unlike the White House press secretary, though, for nine innings a day, the manager can at least claim to be the person in charge.

The key word there is “claim.”

Currently, the manager’s job is viewed as being nothing more than a well-compensated, high-profile orderly who carries out the demands of the front office at the behest of the general manager.

In other words, not only is he just pressing the buttons he is given, but he also is being told when to press them.

Predictive analytics and advanced statistics have carried a reputation of laying waste to the idea of a manager making “gut” decisions, reducing the role of managing a game to almost a paint-by-numbers exercise.

But Pirates general manager Ben Cherington doesn’t want newly hired manager Derek Shelton to feel as though Shelton’s job is inconsequential.

“I would argue that the role of the manager is more important every day, even more important now than it has been because of what you are describing,” Cherington said when Shelton was hired last month. “Because of the importance of ultimately putting players in the best position to improve and succeed. But everything that goes into that. The manager is leading that environment and process at the Major League level.”

That sounds great, but it also means Cherington has to divorce himself from a sense of control once the “Star Spangled Banner” is finished. One would imagine that may be hard to do for a second-time GM getting a new lease on life with a first-time manager of a team with minimal talent.

“It is a partnership and collaboration,” Cherington said. “Ultimately there are things that Derek is going to make a call on, and I think it is extremely important that Derek is the leader of the Major League clubhouse and is perceived as such.”

Shelton insinuated that the best way for him to do that is to assemble a talented coaching staff that gives honest feedback. That feedback will help Shelton when he explains to Cherington why he made certain moves after they work out.

Or, more importantly, when they don’t.

“You are the leader of the group,” Shelton said when he was introduced as manager. “But it is a group. And it’s not just baseball operations. It is the baseball coaching staff. If you don’t build a good staff and bounce things off of them, I wouldn’t be doing my job.”

The issue that Hurdle and his staff confronted for most of the last three seasons is that when in-game decisions were made according to the plan put forth by general manager Neal Huntington, the players Huntington assembled weren’t good enough to carry out the orders.

When Hurdle went against the grain, again, the players weren’t good enough to pay off his hunches.

That’s why they both were dismissed after the 2019 season ended with 93 losses.

“Ultimately, the in-game decisions will be my decisions,” Shelton said. “But I think if I didn’t get information from everyone, I wouldn’t be doing my job to the fullest.”

And Cherington won’t be doing his unless he gives Shelton better talent to make those decisions pay off.