2 urgent changes Pirates still need to make after deserved Derek Shelton firing

The Pittsburgh Pirates enter play Friday with a 12-26 record. That .316 winning percentage marks the lowest entering May 9 since 2006 when the team was 9-24 (.273). That team finished with 95 losses.

The Bucs have also dropped seven consecutive games including a pair of series sweeps. The on-field disaster and seemingly constant off-field, PR issues the organization has faced already this year has become a call to action for owner Bob Nutting. The club dismissed Derek Shelton on Thursday afternoon, which shows their willingness to take action. But they can't stop there, and must immediately make two more major changes

Travis Williams Must Lose His Job With Pittsburgh Pirates

The most obvious and correct course of action would see Nutting completely clean house. That should start directly below him with Pirates team president Travis Williams. What has occurred outside the field of play in this calendar year alone remains flat out unacceptable.

From the removal of the Robert Clemente patch on the Clemente Wall for an advertisement to the complete mishandling and subsequent downplaying of the Bucco Bricks scandal, Williams has overseen multiple preventable issues.

Things have not improved over the past few weeks, either. While the tragic event of the young fan falling from the top of the Clemente Wall and altercation between a gameday employee and fan were out of his control, everything reflects back on Williams.

The list continues with subjectively overpriced concessions, among other things. Williams has failed miserably in his role, both on and off the field. Firing Willaims compares to cutting one of the heads off the hydra; a mythical three-headed dragon-type monster.

Fire Ben Cherington and His Pirates Staff of “Analytical Gurus”

Ben Cherington took over as the general manager of the team in November 2019. The Bucs were just four seasons removed from a 98-win season and two seasons removed from finishing over .500. However, he made the correct decision to enter a full rebuild. Cherington traded away players like Joe Musgrove, Starling Marte, Josh Bell and Jameson Taillon to jumpstart this process. Only two players in the return package for those two players currently have a place on the major-league roster.

The Pirates have not finished with more than 76 wins in his tenure. The 2020 shortened COVID season saw Pittsburgh finish 19-41 with a .317 winning percentage. After drafting Nick Gonzales seventh overall that summer, the team earned the No. 1 overall pick in the ensuing draft. Cherington took Henry Davis. As of today, Davis has not developed into a major-league hitter.

The next two seasons saw Pittsburgh lose 101 and 100 games. Cherington and his team selected Termarr Johnson fourth overall in July 2022. Johnson, now 20, has never hit over .244 in a minor-league season, nor has he ever eclipsed the 20 home run or 60 RBI plateau. As of this writing, the second baseman has a slash line of .245/.385/.403 with four home runs, nine RBI and two doubles in 26 games with Double-A Altoona this season.

The lone first-round selection Cherington has undoubtedly succeeded in making came in 2023 with the selection of Paul Skenes. The Pirates picked first overall after winning the first ever MLB Draft Lottery, jumping up two spots. Even BC could not screw up when picking a generational pitcher. Last summer, the Bucs took 17-year-old Konnor Griffin. While Griffin has shown early promise in Low-A Bradenton, it remains way too early to render a verdict.

Cherington has also failed to sign any impactful free agents to multi-year deals. The Bucs have not handed out a multi-year deal to a free agent in almost a decade. The most expensive free-agent deal in the Cherington era came in the 2024 offseason when Aroldis Chapman inked a one-year, $10.5 million deal.

In a year where both him and manager Derek Shelton emphasized the word “winning,” the general manager has done more harm than help. Cherington’s big offseason acquisitions may have set the team back. Tommy Pham, a 37-year-old, and Adam Frazier, a 33-year-old, both signed low-money, one-year contracts this winter. Pham has a slash line of .183/.259/.221 with no home runs, six RBI and 33 strikeouts. Frazier has a .229/.293/.314 slash line, two homers and 10 RBI.

The role players BC acquired have also been abysmal. Enmanuel Valdez had to become a starter due to injuries. Valdes carries a .209/.294/.363 slash line, two home runs and 12 RBI into the weekend. Cherington traded for outfielder Alexander Canario this spring. Canario has been the worst of them all, slashing .122/.200/.195 with one home run, two RBI and 11 strikeouts in 41 at bats. Shelton hit Canario fifth in the order Wednesday afternoon.

The biggest acquisition of Cherington’s “win-now” winter came in the form of Spencer Horwitz. The Bucs traded away pitcher Luis Ortiz and a pair of prospects for the first baseman. Horwitz has not yet played a game for the big-league club as Cherington acquired him knowing he had a chronic wrist injury. In his ongoing rehab assignment, Horwitz has gone 2-for-16 with a pair of walks in Double-A Altoona. Ben Cherington only knows rebuilding and cannot construct a winner. His firing would cut off the second head of the hydra.

Derek Shelton Does Not Have One Memorable Moment as Pirates Manager as Tenure Ends

Now, to the move the Pirates made on Thursday, and why it was beyond overdue.

The Pittsburgh Pirates have a 306-440 record since Cherington and Shelton took over prior to the 2020 season. No other general manager/manager duo had a worse overall record in their first five seasons with an organization and kept their jobs. The duo legitimately made major-league baseball history.

These are the raw, non-debatable numbers of Derek Shelton’s ball club through 38 games. The Pittsburgh Pirates have committed 27 errors, which tie them for second-most in baseball and most in the National League. Their 4.31 staff ERA and 175 runs allowed both rank in the bottom 10 in baseball.

The struggles at the plate have somehow been worse than the lack of simple, fundamental defense. Pittsburgh’s 118 runs scored are the second-least in baseball and sit just six behind the 6-29 Colorado Rockies. The team’s -57 run differential sits fifth-worst in baseball and third-lowest in the NL.

Shelton’s squad has the fourth-lowest batting average in the game at .219 (.006 above last place), second-lowest slugging percentage at .325 (.004 above the last place White Sox) and second-lowest OPS at .626 (.010 above the last place White Sox). The Pirates have also struck out the seventh-most times in baseball with 322 Ks and have hit the second-least home runs in the league with 26 (just one behind last place Toronto).

If those numbers were not bad enough, the team constantly runs into outs, gives their opponent extra outs, throws to the incorrect base and takes bad routes to batted balls. Shelton consistently plays his guys out of position, has shown ineptitude in managing his bullpen and does not possess the ability to construct his lineup on a daily basis.

The Pirates have started to cut the heads off the hydra by firing Shelton. He was undoubtedly a problem. But will anything tangible change until all three of these deeds are taken care of?

Things Can Somehow Still Get Worse for Pirates

Just when it appears this season and the regime has hit rock bottom, a new bar comes within reach. The franchise has played 144 professional seasons starting in 1882. The Pittsburgh Pirates, as a franchise, have been below .500 since the early 1900s.

That franchise's overall record has plummeted since Cherington and Shelton took over. The 306-440, or 136 games under .500, record has nosedived the team’s legacy. The Pirates enter May 9 with a record of 10,851-10,845 since the inception of the franchise, just six games over .500.

The 2025 squad appears primed to push the franchise under .500 for their history for the first time in over a century. This could easily happen before the end of the calendar month. The feat should be viewed as the ultimate disrespect to Pirate greats like Dave Parker, Honus Wager, Willie Stargel, Bill Mazeroski, Roberto Clemente and the rest. All of this comes at the hands of Travis Williams, Ben Cherington, Derek Shelton and, of course, owner and chairman Bob Nutting.