Pirates insider answers question no fan wants to address as team endures hot streak

Under Don Kelly as manager, the Pirates have played exactly .500 baseball since May 8 and have won six of their last 10 games. The one-run loss to the Cubs on Thursday was a tough one, but it's still better than what they were doing under Derek Shelton, whose team was getting dangerously close to slipping under .300. It's been good enough to get Kelly some very early extension buzz.

However, Kelly's success could reflect annoyingly well on the second-most hated man in the Pirates organization — Ben Cherington. Of course, both Cherington and Bob Nutting are still responsible for putting together a below-average team and Kelly's just trying to get the most out of them as he possibly can, but success is success. If the Pirates find a way to finish the season above .469, the very low benchmark from last year, it'll show marginal improvement.

Noah Hiles of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette weighed in on Kelly's potential success meaning potential longevity for Cherington. He wrote, "Kelly’s success certainly won’t hurt Cherington. Is there a world where Kelly survives and Cherington is fired at the end of the season? Sure. But I think it’s probably more likely that both are retained" (subscription required). Come on, man.

Don Kelly's success with Pirates could unfortunately extend Ben Cherington's tenure as GM

Hiles said that the Pirates could continue to use Shelton as a scapegoat along with some of the early-season injuries, which would also help Cherington evade responsibility for the team's initial failures.

Unfortunately, while Kelly's success (well, relative success to Shelton and Co.'s past failures) would probably give fans a little more hope, it also might not move Cherington and the front office to change their ways in the slightest. If anything, it could make them more complacent than they already are. And if the Pirates have a fire sale at the trade deadline, all those same pieces that Kelly was managing to improve will have been shipped off anyway.

It's all very much a double-edged sword. Hiles added that Nutting reportedly wasn't pleased with Cherington around the time of Shelton's firing, but Kelly could bring him back from the brink. Very little of that could actually be credited to Cherington, of course, but it would save Nutting the headache of having to find a new GM, which is probably the most notable potential roadblock.