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Pittsburgh Pirates Add Glenn Sherlock To Their Coaching Staff

By Marty Leap

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 26: Zack Wheeler #45 and Glenn Sherlock #53 of the New York Mets celebrate a single by Wheeler in the seventh inning of their game against the Miami Marlins at Citi Field on September 26, 2019 in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough in New York City. (Photo by Emilee Chinn/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 26: Zack Wheeler #45 and Glenn Sherlock #53 of the New York Mets celebrate a single by Wheeler in the seventh inning of their game against the Miami Marlins at Citi Field on September 26, 2019 in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough in New York City. (Photo by Emilee Chinn/Getty Images) /
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The Pittsburgh Pirates made a sneaky good hire on Monday to improve their catcher play and run prevention

It has been an offseason of change for the Pittsburgh Pirates. That change continued on Monday when new manager Derek Shelton made the latest addition to his coaching staff. This addition was Glenn Sherlock.

The 59-year-old Sherlock will work with the Pirates catcher in an effort to improve their run prevention. He will also work with Shelton and new bench coach Don Kelly with game preparation, management and game day decisions.

Sherlock comes to the Pirates from the Mets. Since 2017 he had served as the Mets catching instructor. He had also worked as the team’s third base and first base coach.

In addition to his work with the Mets, Sherlock was a long time employee of the Arizona Diamondbacks. In fact, he was a member of the team’s inaugural staff in 1998. He started out as a minor league instructor with the Diamondbacks, and remained as a member of the team’s staff through the 2016 season.

Shelton and Sherlock have a long history together. They met each other in the early 90s when Shelton was a catcher in the New York Yankees minor league system and Sherlock was a coach in the Yankee system.

Hiring Sherlock is just the latest move by new general manager Ben Cherington this offseason to emphasize run prevention from the catcher position. Right now the Pirates two catchers are Jacob Stallings and the recently signed Luke Maile, both of whom are excellent defenders and pitch framers. When you combine this with Sherlock’s expertise working with catchers and working on run prevention, the Pirates should see a quantum leap in catcher defense from 2019 to 2020.

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Run prevention from the catcher position is vital in baseball. When the Pirates made the postseason in three consecutive seasons from 2013 – 2015, Russell Martin, Chris Stewart, and Francisco Cervelli were all excellent defensive catchers. As a result, the Pirates excelled at run prevention and that was a major reason why the team made the postseason in three consecutive seasons.

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