Pittsburgh Pirates players reacted Friday to the firing of Derek Shelton with more of a sympathetic shrug than surprise, knowing that their poor start to the season had a lot to do with the managerial move.
“Unfortunately, I wasn’t shocked,” said Pirates right-handed pitcher Paul Skenes, the 2024 National League Rookie of the Year. “We’re 12-26. Someone’s got to be held accountable, and, unfortunately, right now, it’s him. That’s just kind of how it goes, but I don’t know that it fixes the root of the issue, which is we need to play better. That’s been the messaging today. That’s been the messaging for a little bit now, and we’ve still got to do that.”
Shelton had a 306-440 record (.410 winning percentage) in five-plus years as Pirates manager, a tenure that began with the covid-shortened 2020 season. He was relieved of his duties Thursday amid a seven-game losing streak and the Pirates in last place in the NL Central.
Andrew McCutchen on the Pirates making a managerial change. pic.twitter.com/1Y69mLeC82
— Kevin Gorman (@KevinGormanPGH) May 9, 2025
It was the first time in his 17-year career that Andrew McCutchen has endured a midseason managerial change, so it was still sinking in for the designated hitter and franchise icon before Friday’s game against the Atlanta Braves at PNC Park.
“I don’t know, honestly. I’ve barely had any time to really think about it,” McCutchen said. “In the time that I’ve played the game, I’ve never had to deal with a manager being fired midseason. So it’s something new to me that I haven’t really processed. I still have a job to do. As far as everything is considered, to answer your question, honestly, I haven’t given it much thought.”
All-Star outfielder Bryan Reynolds credited Shelton for being supportive of and fair to his players, calling his firing “unfortunate.”
“Shelton’s always had my back,” Reynolds said. “He’s always treated me well, so I’ve got nothing bad to say about him.”
Shortstop Isiah Kiner-Falefa called Shelton’s firing “just kind of like the icing on the cake” on a season that has had its share of controversies, ranging from removing the sign on the Clemente Wall for a Surfside advertisement, the removal and recycling of the Bucco Bricks from the Home Plate Entrance and the fan falling over the Clemente Wall.
“Everything that could have gone wrong in the organization these first two months has gone wrong,” said Kiner-Falefa, who was acquired from Toronto last July at the trade deadline. “You’re talking about things that are happening outside our control. This is not what I envisioned coming into getting traded here last year. This year, so far, has been extremely disappointing for me.”
The Pirates didn’t sound like a team convinced that the firing of Shelton, as well as that of run prevention and game planning coach Radley Haddad on Friday, would solve their problems. Kiner-Falefa has his fingers crossed that the Pirates get a jolt from the managerial move.
“We’ll see. I’m hoping it will,” Kiner-Falefa said. “But everything that I’ve seen so far here has been pretty terrible, been tough. Hopefully, we can find a way to just turn the page. I don’t know what we have to do. Sage the room, sage the field, I don’t know. But, hopefully, this can lead to something.”