The Pittsburgh Pirates fired Derek Shelton, but one MLB Insider put his criticisms more towards the team’s ownership.
Ken Rosenthal, who writes for The Athletic, spoke on the podcast Foul Territory, discussing the Pirates firing Shelton, why it happened and who else shares the blame.
He criticized Shelton for not getting the most of out his players and understood the change, but criticized both general manager Ben Cherington for not doing enough with his resources and also owner Bob Nutting for the little money he puts into the franchise.
“They need to do better, they need to find players, they need to develop players, they need to put together a greater depth of talent that they have and right now, what’s going to happen is the scrutiny is going to go to Ben Cherington, as it should, in fairness. I just don’t know the answers there when the owner is the ultimate problem.”
Shelton finished with a 306-440 record, a .410 winning percentage, during his time as manager in his six seasons with the team since taking over before the 2020 season.
Cherington joined him before that season as well and hasn’t drafted a long term starting position player since taking over.
Rosenthal criticized Cherington for not doing more, but again, went after Nutting for not providing necessary funds to bolster a team, who has a decent cast in Oneil Cruz, Bryan Reynolds and Ke’Brayn Hayes, plus star pitcher Paul Skenes.
“Nutting, the past two offseasons, has raised expectations, has said he expects more,” Rosenthal said. “So from that perspective too, this is not surprising, but at some point this does fall on the general manager and then when it falls on the general manager, which it almost inevitably will here. You ask the question, okay how does it get better? Hard to imagine it’s getting better under this owner.”
“And then you’re talking about, well, why not sell the team? A lot of people in Pittsburgh want him to sell the team, a lot of people in baseball, I imagine, want him to sell the team because he is not putting out a competitive product.”
“And they can talk about their investment in infrastructure, this is what lower-revenue teams always do. We’re spending in the minors, we’re spending on, that’s fine. There’s a major league team too. That’s the main product and that’s the product you have to figure out how to make competitive.”
Rosenthal also addressed small-market teams like the Tampa Bay Rays, Cleveland Guardians and the Milwaukee Brewers competing, while the Pirates still continue struggling.
He said that those teams, who spend slightly more, make smarter decisions and do more with what they have than the Pirates do.
“The comparison is valid because their financial resources are similar,” Rosenthal said. “Those teams you just said, make more with less that the Pirates do not.”
“So when a manager is fired, it’s an organizational failure. Let’s not mistake that. It is an organizational failure when the manager gets fired and that’s true for a big market team or a small market team.”
“It’s never just on the manager, but while you’re right in saying, ‘Yes, those teams spend more money,’ from a payroll perspective, it’s not that dramatic a difference. It’s not the Dodgers and the Marlins and Milwaukee didn’t do much this offseason. They seem to find a way to keep it going. Tampa Bay, they signed a guy that hasn’t even played yet, [Ha-Seong] Kim, and that was their big expenditure.”
“So, you’re right. Those teams are more aggressive in how they go about it, but there’s still no excuse for the Pirates to be so far behind those clubs.”
Rosenthal previously suggested that Nutting sell the team back in March, criticizing the lack of moves made from the franchise.
Leave a Reply