Pirates GM Explains Don Kelly Decision
PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Pirates fired manager Derek Shelton and elevated bench coach Don Kelly to that spot.
Pirates general manager Ben Cherington, who made the recommendation to replace Shelton, spoke glowingly of Kelly and what he brings to the team during his most recent press conference addressing the firing.
“Let’s just start out with who he is as a person," Cherington said. This is someone who cares way more about the Pirates, the city, cares way more about the people in that clubhouse than he does himself. He’s just an elite human being and teammate. Comes to the ballpark every day focused on one thing, how to help this team get better.
"It’s truly not about him. It never has been. It will need to be a little more now as a manager, I think he understands that, but I have so much faith in the combination of the human he is and the skills he has and the reasons he does the job. He does it for only one reason to help the Pirates because he believes in the Pirates and wants to do good for Pittsburgh."
Kelly was born in nearby Butler on Feb. 15, 1980 and played for Mt. Lebanon High School, winning the state title as a senior. He then attended Point Park University and played three seasons, hitting .413 and striking out just 20 times over 500 at-bats.
The Pirates eventually signed Kelly on a minor league contract in 2007 and he played in 25 games that season, slashing .148/.281/.148 for an OPS of .429.
Kelly then went on to play six seasons with the Detroit Tigers, who drafted him in 2001, and spent two more seasons with the Miami Marlins.
He joined as bench coach under Shelton and will now take over as manager for at least the rest of the 2025 season.
Cherington didn't use the word interim during the press release nor the press conference and sees Kelly as the man for this campaign.
“It’s permanent for 2025 and we’re focused on 2025 and not getting past 2025 and because it became clear it was permanent for 2025, we chose not to use any other words to describe it," Cherington said. "I have a lot of confidence in him doing that job for 2025 and this just happened really quickly.
"My first conversation with Donnie about it was this morning and so we haven’t had time yet to get to all the other potential adjustments. I wouldn’t be surprised if we have some adjustments to make sure that we’re supporting him, Donnie and the entire time as best as we possibly can for the remainder of 2025.
"It’s very important to me and very important to Donnie that he’s in the best position to actually do the manager’s job and not do the job he was just doing. So we need to make sure that we’re reallocating all of the bench coach duties, somehow, in another direction. I expect we’ll have more clarity on that in the coming days."
The Pirates are currently 13-26 overall, as they defeated the Atlanta Braves 3-2 in the series opener at PNC Park on May 9, ending a seven-game losing streak.
Pittsburgh sits nine games behind the Chicago Cubs in first place in the National League Central and have the third worst record in the MLB.
