It is not exactly a page out of Bradley Cooper's Silver Linings Playbook with Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence and Robert DiNiro all screaming at each other the whole time, but it just might work out for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Yes, it stinks that long-time skipper Derek Shelton was relieved of his duties on Thursday afternoon, but his immediate successor in former bench coach Don Kelly might be a dude...
Back in 2021, Kelly was a candidate to take over the team he is best known for playing for in the Detroit Tigers. Pittsburgh and Detroit are often tied together as interleague rivals in the same region of the country. Kelly was mostly a reserve player before turning into coaching. He had been Shelton's right-hand man up until the bitter end for his former boss. There are reasons to believe it will work out.
For example, look at my beloved Atlanta Braves. Bobby Cox did away with Russ Nixon in favor of returning to the dugout. He is now a Hall of Famer. While the Fredi Gonzalez coronation was a huge embarrassing failure, Atlanta finally calling upon a faithful servant in Brian Snitker has been mostly good. He will have his number retired by the Braves organization one day. Kelly could be that guy!
Of course, it starts with the Pirates playing better baseball, not just being better than awful Colorado.
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Don Kelly could be the diamond in the rough the Pittsburgh Pirates need
For analytical reasons, baseball managers have become less and less important in getting the most out of a championship roster. General managers will sit in their ivory towers, often emulating Daryl Morey's ways of forgetting that people still have personalities and they must interact with each other in the day-to-day affairs of the workplace. This is where a great manager will separate from the pack.
Billy Martin said it best during his prolific career managing the New York Yankees in the late 1970s. To paraphrase his point, there are 25 players on a roster. Five will always love you, five will always hate you. It is all about convincing the undecided 15 team come over to your side of the argument. Managers need to be both strategic, but they also have to be keen on emotional intelligence. It is vital.
While I have no earthly idea if Kelly will be better than what Shelton was under the confounding circumstances of working for a Bob Nutting-owned enterprise, I will remain optimistic. Kelly is at this stage of his coaching career to get a real shot at this. Pittsburgh is not the best job in MLB by a country mile, but the expectations have been lowered enough to where he may have a real shot here.
It should be noted that Kelly has not been slapped with the interim tag. He seems to be given full confidence and support from the entire Pirates organization moving forward. Again, this shows the franchise trusts him and is willing to see what he can do in this elevated role the rest of the way. I remember this being the case when Snitker was promoted to manage the Braves back in 2016, too.
"He is the manager and has the full support of the organization," -Pirates Senior VP of Communications Brian Warecki.
We have nearly five months of baseball left to be played, so Kelly will have his time to leave his mark.