After finishing in last place in the National League Central in 2019, the Pirates did almost a complete overhaul of their coaching staff, bringing back just three coaches in 2020, with one, Justin Meccage, changing roles.
There won’t be a similar overhaul to Derek Shelton’s staff this offseason as all of the Pirates coaches are returning, despite the team finishing with the worst record in baseball, 19-41.
That may come as a surprise to some, especially on the offensive side after the club finished with the fewest runs scored (219) and lowest OPS (.641) in the majors. Several key hitters from previous years – including Josh Bell, Bryan Reynolds, Kevin Newman and Gregory Polanco – struggled the entire season, with Shelton attributing it to timing issues.
But the way bench coach Don Kelly sees it, the challenges the season brought and the drastically shortened schedule made it difficult to make judgements solely on results.
“It was such a unique season,” Kelly was telling me. “I think guys learned some things about themselves throughout the season. Different ways that they can prepare themselves. Different ways from a mental aspect of how they can go out and compete.
“It’s such a tough season to really judge anybody on. I’m really looking forward to having our staff back together. The attitude and the way they went about their business was really good.”
Kelly was actually the member of the coaching staff that seemed the closest to departing, though it would have been by his own volition. He interviewed for the Tigers and Red Sox managerial openings this winter, and was reportedly a finalist for the latter job.
Kelly does check a lot of boxes teams look for in a potential manager. He played nine seasons in the majors, has a background in player development and scouting and is now a bench coach, a position that is ripe for future skippers. But to draw that sort of consideration with just one abbreviated season as a bench coach under his belt is an encouraging sign for his managerial aspirations.
But for 2021, returning to the Pirates and the same coaching group is exciting for him.
“It’s a great group,” Kelly said. “Seeing the attitude, the way the players, staff, the organization, how we went about fighting through the changes this season… it was special.”
At the end of the regular season, Shelton told his staff to take some time to reflect on the year that was. For Kelly, one of his biggest takeaways was his communication skills. He felt he got better at that in 2020, but he can still be more open.
“There are some things for me, my first year as a bench coach, that I can do better, learn from,” Kelly said. “There’s always some things we did well and things we can look back to improve upon.”
Communication and planning are key for Kelly, who was in charge of organizing the spring training schedules this year and will do so again in 2021.
But only so much planning and organization can be done right now with so much about next season still up in the air. Kelly said they are presuming they will have to break into small groups during spring training next year, like they did during summer camp in July, to try to stay safe from the virus. But for the most part, they are waiting to see pandemic protocols and guidelines first.
“There’s still an unknown of what 2021 is going to bring,” Kelly said. “Really planning for spring training and that kind of stuff, we can’t get too deep into that quite yet because we have to wait and see.”