Pirates' Derek Shelton Shuts Down Effort Concerns
A once-promising season has all but fallen by the wayside for the Pittsburgh Pirates.
The Pirates have gone 3-13 in August, including a season-long 10-game losing streak that spanned their entire West Coast road trip against the San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers. At 58-66, Pittsburgh is in last place in the NL Central and has a 0.2 percent chance of making the playoffs by FanGraphs' metrics.
Despite his team's recent struggles, Pirates manager Derek Shelton isn't questioning if his team is putting their best foot forward.
“Our effort has not changed," Shelton said on 93.7 The Fan on Tuesday. "We lost 11 one-run games since the [All-Star] break, we gotta figure out a way to be better.”
“I understand that and everybody’s going to have their opinion on that. In terms of if it affects an extra base or how it's going, that’s when the effort comes into play in my mind.”
Since the All-Star break, Pittsburgh has gone 10-18 and is 3-10 in one-run ball games. Eight of the 10 one-run losses have come against the Padres, Dodgers, Arizona Diamondbacks and Houston Astros. All four teams would be in the playoffs in the regular season ended today.
For the season, the Pirates are 19-25 in games decided by one run. In 2023, Pittsburgh was 22-17 in one-run ballgames.
With the Pirates' precipitous fall as they trek toward missing the playoffs for a ninth-straight season, Shelton's job has now been called into question.
"The Pittsburgh Pirates’ free-fall out of the NL wild-card race could cost manager Derek Shelton his job, or at least result in some changes on his coaching staff," Bob Nightengale of USA Today wrote.
Regardless of how Shelton feels about his team's effort in the wake of their struggles, it's the results that matter. Through five seasons at the helm, there isn't much for Shelton to hang his hat that would make him potentially getting fired an egregious decision.
If the Pirates can turn things around and show they aren't too far off, that could be enough for him to return next season. But if Pittsburgh's struggles continue, no amount of effort from his team may be enough for Shelton to be the team's manager in 2025.
