PITTSBURGH – The group text from general manager Ben Cherington to the players came Thursday morning: Derek Shelton was being let go as the Pirates’ manager.
As Paul Skenes would say Friday, “Unfortunately, I wasn’t shocked.”
“At the end of the day, we’re 12-26,” Skenes said. “Someone’s got to be held accountable, and unfortunately right now, it’s him. That’s just kind of how it goes, but I don’t know that it fixes the root of the issue, which is we need to play better. That’s been the messaging today, that’s been the messaging for a little bit now and we’ve still got to do that.”
This season has not gone the way the Pirates envisioned. Attribute it to injuries, players not living up to expectations or whatever else, but the team came into this year with an expectation to be competitive. It hasn’t been, struggling out of the gate before falling into its seven-game losing streak heading into Friday night’s opener against the Braves at PNC Park.
During his press conference Thursday, Cherington said that “a change was necessary” given the team’s performance. That sentiment was echoed in the clubhouse.
“Sometimes, teams need to make changes,” Ryan Borucki said. “I've been around teams where you're like, 'Yeah, you can kind of see the writing on the wall' a little bit. We just need a little bit of a spark, a little bit of a change. Hopefully, this is what it takes to get this team going."
It still puts players in uncharted territory; most have never had to navigate a managerial change during the season. That mostly applies to young players – of which there are plenty in the Pirates’ clubhouse – but even veterans, like Andrew McCutchen.
“The only thing I can focus on is myself, doing my job and whatever I can so something like that doesn't ever happen again,” McCutchen said. “That's all I'm trying to focus on. Hopefully, the guys in the clubhouse are doing the same thing, so collectively we can change things for ourselves so we're not having to go through this again.
“This season has been what it's been so far. Obviously, it hasn't gone the way we wanted it to go. So if we want to change that, we have to go out, do our job and try to win the game we're playing each day."
“I think there's a lot of emotions, a bunch of different feelings,” infielder Jared Triolo said. “But we'll see how it works going forward."
Under some circumstances, the firing of a manager in-season is an unofficial white flag. The Pirates aren’t really in a position to do that, especially since there is still three-quarters of the season remaining.
Borucki spoke of a spark that a change like this can bring. Time will tell if new manager Don Kelly can bring it. It would be an uphill climb to get back into the National League Central race, but there’s enough runway that it’s at least plausible.
“It's baseball. Anything can happen until 162 is done,” Borucki said. “You're never done. My saying is, ‘It's never too late to get hot.’ We still have so much season left. We're not throwing in the towel as a team. It's onward and upward now."
“If nothing else, we better grow, because if we don’t grow then it’s a completely lost season,” Skenes said. “Just got to keep going and understand the urgency of where we’re at right now.”
Could Shelton’s dismissal be the wakeup call the team needs? Skenes’ answer on the matter was short: “We’ll see.” Because while Kelly will give the team a new voice, he’s not going to be able to perform on the field.
"He's going to do his part. He's going to do his job,” McCutchen said of Kelly. “Obviously, it's not like we're trying to lean on him to help us. He can't help us in a way where it gets us to perform on the field. We have to help ourselves in that aspect.
“He's going to manage. That's his job. We have to do ours, too. He's going to do his, we're going to do ours. If we can collectively come together and have some success, that's all you can ask for."