Players ‘relieved, happy and excited’ to have a manager
It didn’t take long for the news of Derek Shelton becoming the newest manager of the Pirates to travel across the pond. Chris Archer was enjoying dinner in Europe when he started to get texts confirming the hire.
“I think everybody is relieved, happy and excited. Nobody enjoyed that last day of the season when Clint [Hurdle] told us that he wasn’t going to be manager,” Archer told the PostGazette via phone.
“Nobody enjoyed hearing it and that Neal [Huntington] wasn’t going to be there. But now that we’re past that and we’re looking forward, I think everybody that I’ve spoken to is excited to get it going and just to see the changes and to see the newness and still have that refreshed feeling when we get to spring training.”
Archer has the most experience with the new Pirates skipper. Shelton was the hitting coach for the Tampa Bay Rays while Archer was pitching there.
“So Sheltie, you immediately recognize how great of a communicator he is. I came over in like 2011. He established a relationship with me before I was even in the big leagues,” Archer said. “And then it carried on. Obviously, it grew while we’re in the big leagues, and it wasn’t necessarily a baseball relationship. It was more man-to-man. I knew if I needed to come to him with something, I could. We just had a nice bond.”
Pitchers rarely hit in the American League, so it speaks well of Shelton that he was able take to time to create relationships with the hurlers.
“Even though I was a pitcher and he was the hitting coach, we were still able to relate and have conversations and grow in baseball if necessary,”
Archer said.
“I know the manager for the [Minnesota] Twins [Rocco Baldelli], and I know a couple of players on the Twins that say after seeing him as a bench coach, they told me verbatim that he’s one of the most prepared people they’ve ever seen in the game. So mixed with the ability to communicate and how they say he prepares, I’m excited about the future of our organization.”
Shortstop Cole Tucker was in Arizona and had recently returned from a 10day European adventure of his own when he got the news.
“I was leaving the gym . ... I got my phone, checked Twitter and saw, ‘Pirates hire 41st manager,’ or whatever. And Derek Shelton. I was like, ‘Oh, cool.’ So I went and texted him . ... So it’s news to me, too. But it’s exciting.”
Baseball circles are small, so it didn’t take Tucker much time to get info on Shelton.
“I reached out to someone I knew with Minnesota,” Tucker said. “And he said, ‘Super, laid-back players manager. That you’re going to love him, Tuck.’ So I hope I do and I’m looking forward to getting to know him and playing for him.”
Tucker also spoke to several teammates like Archer, Mitch Keller, Jason Martin, Adam Frazier and Bryan Reynolds.
“We all do a really good job of staying in touch with guys on the team and the staff and all that,” Tucker said. “So it’s very interesting because there’s a lot of uncertainty of who was going to be there, who’s going to be filling out the lineup and who we’re going to be working with, essentially.
Pitcher Trevor Williams, like many of the Pirates, is ready to spend time with the new leadership team of Shelton and general manager Ben Cherington.
“I’m glad that we’ve made our decisions. I’m confident in the front office staff,” Williams said. “I’m confident that they made the correct decision. And I’m looking forward to showing up at spring training, ready to reprove myself to people that have never seen me in person.”
The timetable of the Pirates moving on from Huntington, Hurdle, and former team president Frank Coonelly was odd by baseball standards. The decision to let Huntington go came after owner Bob Nutting gave him an emphatic vote of confidence. Archer acknowledged the awkwardness of it all, but he’s relieved that the biggest moves are now out of the way.
“Yeah, look man, it shows how somebody can say something and truly mean it in one moment and then immediately, a day, a week, a month later, things can change,” Archer said. “So it’s not disheartening that that happens. It’s just reality that happens in all our relationships in life.
“It happens with our families. It happens at work. It’s just something that happens. It was different, but it’s a lot more settling to know that we have those positions in place now, certainly.”