SAN DIEGO -- The day he arrived in Pittsburgh, Derek Shelton received a phone call from Jim Leyland.
He could not believe it. He thought he was going to be the one to reach out to Leyland.
Leyland offered his congratulations and the two went out for breakfast the next day. Shelton, always eager to learn, asked if Leyland had any advice. Not just because he's a future Hall of Fame manager, but because he is a Pittsburgher.
Leyland kept it simple: Be yourself.
"I think it was as much he was giving advice about the press conference," Shelton said. "People try to be something [they're not]. He's like, 'be yourself.'"
Shelton and Leyland also talked strategies, about how they both stunk as bad minor league catchers (their words), Don Kelly- who would become the Pirates bench coach shortly after- among other things during their breakfast. That is nothing new for Shelton. He has talked strategies and everything baseball with Joe Maddon, Kevin Cash and Rocco Baldelli, all of whom are celebrated managers he has worked under.
But those three never managed in Pittsburgh. Leyland had, so Shelton took his words to heart.
"I think the people of Pittsburgh, it's important how they embrace you and how they view you," Shelton said. "He's from Pittsburgh... He embraced being in the organization, managing the organization, and he embraced the city."
"It was just important to me that someone that was that important in the city and knew the city, to talk to him," he added, later.
• More on Kelly: Shelton did not know much about Kelly before the two met. He had watched him played on Leyland's Tigers for a number of years and liked the way he approached the game.
Kelly got rave reviews from Leyland and Astros manager A.J. Hinch, who Kelly worked for last year as first base coach, and Shelton was struck by his composition.
"It was more the fact of who he is as a person," Shelton said. "How bright he is and the fact that he wants to learn, wants to grow. To his credit, I told him, 'I'm coming out here this week and we're going to talk every day.' And I've talked to him probably three of the four days."
Kelly is helping Shelton vet guys for staff positions.
• Shelton was the Twins bench coach the last two seasons, but he took on far more responsibilities last season than most people in that role usually have. The arrangement between him and Baldelli worked, so Shelton has a unique view on the role of a bench coach.
"I probably had as much, if not more, leeway than most major league bench coaches at the time, and I told Donnie and I told Ben [Cherington] when he talked about him, that I expect it to be the same way," Shelton said. "I want to hear his voice. I want to hear his thoughts. I want him to be part of conversations that we have with our informatics team, with our development team and with our medical team, because if we can do that and he's included, it takes away 15 minutes of the day of me having to run him through what's going on.
"And he may have different thoughts than I do. He's three years removed from playing. He's going to have some thoughts on rest and recovery I don't have. Anything that he's part of that we can save time in the day, it's gonna be helpful."
• Shelton and Cherington have talked about making a "player-centered" culture in Pittsburgh. Shelton said Tuesday it is the most important thing to them.
So how does one go about doing that?
"We're going to have communication. We're going to have feedback. We're going to allow them to have feedback. We're gonna allow them to tell us how they're feeling and what's going about it. Now, ultimately, we'll have the say on how we're going to do things, but we're gonna include them. And I think anytime you include players, especially in today's environment, that you're going to get more out of them.
"So the most important thing is them knowing where we stand and us knowing where they stand and working forward."
Shelton has had a chance to meet with some players- including going to Primanti's with Joe Musgrove and having a sit-down with Josh Bell ("He's really big. He walked in the office and I was like, 'oh my God.'")- and so far, they are buying in to it.
"One of the main cruxes of every conversation is I realize when we say we're going to do something different or there's going to be a new culture, they're not going to trust that right away. And they shouldn't trust that right away because they don't know me and they don't know what we're going to do.
"... That's what a big part of spring training is gonna be, is getting them to believe when we do say something, then that's what we mean."
• Shelton spoke with Starling Marte over the phone a week ago and had an interpreter in the room to make sure nothing lost in translation.
On Nov. 28, Marte said he wanted to play for a winner and that if it was up to him, he would leave the Pirates.
Shelton did not take issue with what Marte said.
"I think you want to hear all your players say, 'hey, we want to win.' So don't look at the comment at all in any way that there should be anything made of it.
"He wants to win. That's good. I want to win, too, so we're on the same page there."
• A quick editorial: I, like the rest of Pirates media at the Winter Meetings, had the opportunity to spend some time with Shelton Wednesday, both at the managers breakfast and before his interview session. I don't think his personality really came through during his introductory press conference. He's quick-witted, funny, a storyteller and very personsable. It's easy to see why he keeps talking about relationships. I think we're going to see more of his personality come through as the year progresses.
He's a good fit for Pittsburgh, both on and off the field.