Derek Shelton took an unfamiliar spot Friday afternoon at PNC Park, sitting in the visitor’s dugout for the first time since being fired as Pittsburgh Pirates manager a year ago.
Shelton has followed the Pirates from afar, first while working for MLB Network Radio on Sirius XM last season and now as manager of the Minnesota Twins, and emphasized that he has “good thoughts” about both the city and the ballclub.
“This year, the Pirates off to a really good start,” Shelton said. “I think that’s good for this city. It’s good for this fan base. This fan base deserves a winner. They’re doing a really good job of building a nice club.”
That’s something Shelton experienced only in small samples during his tenure, as the Pirates went 306-440 (.410 winning percentage) in his five-plus seasons as skipper. They had baseball’s worst record in his first season, going 19-41 in the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign, and followed that by losing 101 games in 2021 and 100 in 2022. After back-to-back 76-win seasons, he was fired amid a 12-26 start on May 8, 2025.
“I wish it would have went differently, obviously,” Shelton said. “I think there were a lot of factors that come into play there. Some of them are out of my control. … I will never look back on it in a negative connotation, regardless of how anything went down, how it went. Do I wish we would have had better teams here? Yeah. Was some of that out of my control? Yeah. But looking back at it negatively? I will never do that.”
Sparked by the return of 2025 National League Cy Young winner Paul Skenes and offseason acquisitions in All-Stars Brandon Lowe and Ryan O’Hearn that boosted the Opening Day payroll past $100 million for the first time in franchise history, the Pirates (29-28) had a winning record entering the opener of their three-game series against the Twins.
Shelton dismissed any thoughts of envy.
“I can’t live in a speculative world,” Shelton said. “You can go back and say if this would happened and if this would have happened, but everything happens for a reason. I’m where I should be.”
Shelton served as Minnesota’s bench coach under Rocco Baldelli for two seasons before joining the Pirates, and has the Twins (27-30) in third place in the American League Central.
“I think the one thing about it is you know the inner workings, not only of the front office, but of all the ancillary,” Shelton said. “You know a lot of the things that are going on. You know who the clubhouse people are, who the travel secretary is – little things that, when you got to a new organization you have to learn. But being able to already have those relationships built I think was important.”
Shelton said he still has a fondness for PNC Park and the Roberto Clemente Museum, where former Pirates first baseman Josh Bell organized a visit for a team trip on Thursday night.
And he spoke highly of his working relationship with Pirates general manager Ben Cherington, who selected Skenes, former No. 1 overall prospect in shortstop Konnor Griffin and top pitching prospect in right-hander Seth Hernandez with first-round picks the past three MLB Drafts.
“They’ve dominated the draft and they’ve especially dominated the draft pitching-wise,” Shelton said. “I think when you’re looking at organizations that have done what they’ve done pitching-wise and you look at the depth of their pitching – and it’s not just what they have here. You include (Seth) Hernandez, you look at the evolution of what (Braxton) Ashcraft has done, what Carmen (Mlodzinski) has done. I think they’ve done an elite job here. And Ben does a good job. Again, going back to it, the team that he’s created now, I’m extremely happy for him. I still have a strong friendship with him. He’s a guy that I admire a lot. I’m very happy that he was allowed to do some of the things he was allowed to do this year.”