Pirates fully crashing to end 2024 must change team's mind on Derek Shelton

Remember when the Pittsburgh Pirates were right in the thick of the National League Wild Card race, battling with the likes of the San Diego Padres and the Arizona Diamondbacks for a spot in the postseason?

It feels like eons ago, but that's where the Pirates were as recently as July, when they went 15-10 during the month and added a couple of bats in Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Bryan De La Cruz to make their lineup at least moderately better. The Pirates of August and September, however, have looked like a different team, as they crashed and burned en route to a last-place finish in the National League Central division.

Any sliver of optimism surrounding the team was erased by a 10-game losing streak in early August at the hands of their direct competitors for an NL Wild Card berth. The Pirates lost two of three to Arizona and were swept at home and on the road by the Padres, not to mention a sweep by the Los Angeles Dodgers in between.

The Pirates' late collapse in 2024 has been so bad in so many ways. Above all, it's an indictment of manager Derek Shelton, who can't manage to instill fundamentals or discipline in his team, much less a desire to win.

Pirates fully crashing to end 2024 must change team's mind on Derek Shelton

The Pirates' August free fall that sent them careening out of postseason contention was an epic collapse. It's the kind that gets people fired – at least, it should be. And yet, Pirates general manager Ben Cherington said a month later he "fully expects" Shelton to be the manager of the Pirates next season. In fact, he went so far as to say that Shelton remains "the right person to manage this team in 2025."

The right person? Seriously? There is plenty of blame to go around for Pittsburgh's second-half implosion, but it's hard to argue that Shelton doesn't deserve the lion's share of it. For the Pirates, a commitment to Shelton is a commitment to perennial mediocrity.

To be certain, Cherington and the front office share a large part of the blame here, too. As a matter of fact, that's probably why we shouldn't put too much stock in his hollow promises about Shelton's future with the organization.

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