With the Pirates collapsing in thorough and spectacular fashion, the citizens need a scapegoat.
The easy pick is manager Derek Shelton.
Should the Pirates fire Shelton? Absolutely.
They shouldn’t have hired Shelton in the first place. He will never again manage in MLB once his tenure with the Pirates is complete. He’s a low-budget manager for a low-budget franchise.
But Shelton, like most big-league skippers, does what his analytics department commands. He performs his job by rote. Data has long since replaced feel, be it for better or worse. Shelton’s replacement will go about his duties in like fashion.
So what’s the difference? Any change will be mere appeasement for the masses.
It’s not like Terry Francona will end his retirement to guide the Pirates.
Even if Francona did, he won’t make the Pirates’ bottom third of the order productive. You can’t polish excrement.
Francona wouldn’t convince owner Bob Nutting to loosen the purse strings. Heck, Nutting wouldn’t ante up what it would take to pay Francona.
The Pirates are a cheap franchise with no legitimate intent when it comes to winning.
The Pirates can’t be fixed. Not as long as Nutting is the owner.
In the immediacy, Shelton’s inadequacy is one of many Pirates’ problems.
Shelton isn’t at fault for:
• The bullpen collapsing, which is what triggered the Pirates’ current slide.
• The aforementioned uselessness of the lineup’s bottom third.
• Bryan De La Cruz slumping badly immediately upon his trade-deadline acquisition.
• Ke’Bryan Hayes’ bad bat and rumored bad back.
• The mangled drafting and development of Henry Davis, who should be a productive cleanup hitter by now.
• Oneil Cruz’s horrific inconsistency, butchery in the field and abject lack of baseball IQ
• Jared Jones’ lat strain, if that’s really why he’s sidelined.
Some of that is organizational failure. A little of it is bad luck or baseball’s usual ebb and flow.
But little of it would be fixed by a better manager.
If the Pirates did (or could) get a better manager, it would be like slapping a butterfly stitch on a shotgun wound.
Replacing Shelton is a good idea. Just don’t expect it to solve much.
The Pirates will miss the playoffs because they’re not good enough. They seem unlikely to even finish with a winning record. It’s a horribly flawed roster.
Andrew McCutchen is 37 and long past his prime. But he’s the closest thing the Pirates have to a sparkplug. It’s not good when the oldest player is the guy trying the hardest. The Pirates are far from gutsy. (They’ve lost 24 one-run games, third-most in MLB.)
The Pirates are just 9-7 in games started by Paul Skenes. (Who now, logically, figures to be shut down in September.)
The Pirates have lost nine straight and 11 of 12. You couldn’t ask for a more absolute collapse.
How much will changing managers solve? Especially since the Pirates won’t get Francona or any reasonable facsimile.
Skenes is a true phenom. So far, he’s been wasted in Pittsburgh.
You’ve got to hit for him. The bullpen needs to be better once Skenes is relieved. He pitches every sixth day and not always deep into games. His impact on winning has somehow been minimal.
The great unwashed fantasize about Skenes staying in Pittsburgh long term.
Why would he want to? Skenes and his agent surely are plotting his escape even now.