Don Kelly has made no secret that he cherishes every moment of managing the Pittsburgh Pirates, and the season opener at the New York Mets on Thursday marks the first Opening Day as their skipper for the Mt. Lebanon and Point Park alum.
Kelly shared an inspired message with his team about wanting to win with his hometown team before the first full-squad workout at Pirate City in Bradenton, Fla., calling himself a “Yinzer” and a die-hard who bleeds black and gold.
“Something I learned a long time ago is that you never really make it,” Kelly said Feb. 11. “It’s something that’s a work in progress all the time. It’s something that I will never take for granted. Coming to spring training, especially this first day, you feel the energy and to be the major-league manager is completely humbling, especially for my hometown team. When you think about the opportunity that we have in front of us, it’s exciting. And like we talked about, the moves that we were able to make, the expectations, you embrace them. It’s exciting and looking forward to 2026 Pirates baseball.”
What stood out in Kelly’s speech was his insistence that the Pirates become a team built around grit, toughness, resilience and loyalty, traits that resonated with players throughout spring training.
“He knows what it takes. He knows what it’s been like around here. He’s a Pittsburgh guy, and you can feel the passion and the commitment he has to this city. Not just to our team but the City of Pittsburgh,” Pirates starting pitcher Mitch Keller said. “It’s really easy to rally behind that. He cares more than anything in the world about winning, about bringing it here. That’s so cool to be part of, and we all can rally behind that easily. Just the way he comes in and makes it not about him but all about the team. He doesn’t want the spotlight.”
After five-plus seasons as Pirates bench coach, Kelly was promoted when Derek Shelton was fired May 8. After a 12-26 start under Shelton, Kelly led the Pirates to a respectable 59-65 record (.476) the remainder of the season.
“He did great from the time he took over. He’s been awesome so far,” Pirates outfielder Bryan Reynolds said. “His energy and his attitude and the way he goes about things is really what you want. It starts there and we’re feeding off of it.”
Kelly’s passion persuaded Ryan O’Hearn to pick the Pirates, as the free agent first baseman/right fielder followed a 45-minute call with Kelly by agreeing to a two-year, $29 million contract.
“I feel like we hit it off from the jump,” O’Hearn said at his introductory news conference. “That’s something that’s extremely important, having a great relationship with the manager. I had heard of Don Kelly as a player for the Pirates and the Tigers. Everybody I’ve spoken to has said nothing but awesome things about him.”
Where Kelly can relate to his players is that he spent nine seasons in the major leagues, battling every year for the final spot on the roster. He broke into the majors with the Pirates, so he’s worn the uniform as a player. And he has played every position on the diamond, including pitcher and catcher, so he speaks from experience.
“He’s done it. He’s been in our shoes,” Reynolds said. “He knows what goes into a season, what goes into showing up and playing every day and how hard it is. That definitely resonates with the guys.”
That Kelly has been to the World Series as both a player for the Detroit Tigers and first base coach for the Houston Astros also carries weight. That he didn’t win a ring either time only strengthened Kelly’s desire to chase a championship.
Ben Cherington has been impressed with Kelly’s “energy to attack the things that he cares about and values the most,” which is a greater concern to the Pirates general manager than his game tactics.
“Every day he wakes up thinking about what he’s valuing, what we’re valuing, in terms of behaviors, expectations, standards, how we want to treat each other, how we want to communicate with each other, how we want to play the game, how we want to practice,” Cherington said. “And he’s consistently shown since last May the willingness to celebrate that when he sees it and to call it out when he sees the level that we want it to be at and give guys a hug when that’s happening but also confront them when it’s not happening and be willing to have that hard conversation.
“I saw that starting last May. I’ve seen it this spring. No reason to think that’s not going to continue. I believe that’s actually what our player group wants, is to be held accountable to that. We all need that check from time to time. Us humans are flawed and we’re going to have a day where we fall short. And it helps to be reminded of that from someone that you trust, and I think our player group trusts Donnie.”