Shelton cultivating Rays’ collaborative culture with Pirates
ST. PETERSBURG — Derek Shelton had recently been hired as the Tampa Bay Rays’ hitting coach when he sought out the new guy in the analytics department back in 2010.
Peter Bendix was experimenting with exit velocity, which measures the speed of the ball as it comes off the bat. They would test it together and look for practical applications in games.
“He was open and interested and excited about the information,” said Bendix, now the Rays’ general manager. “We had just started using exit velocity, and he was the first coach at the time that sought me out for information. I mean, other coaches were nice, but he came to me and it meant a lot to me.
“And I think being openminded and interested about new information and ideas makes a good leader. So it doesn’t surprise me.”
The National League-leading Pittsburgh Pirates’ team Shelton brought to Tropicana Field this week for a threegame series against the Rays has been one of the biggest surprises in baseball.
But no one who crossed paths with Shelton during his seven seasons as Tampa Bay’s hitting coach is surprised he has returned as a successful manager.
“He’s got a lot of inherent qualities,” said former Rays manager Joe Maddon. “First of all, he’s very bright. He’s got a quick mind — a really quick mind. He is extremely organized. And I think he’s a good listener, and he definitely never has felt that he knows everything.
“So he’s got a lot of wonderful leadership qualities that now that he’s had an opportunity to hold his own baby, you’re starting to see it.”
The Pirates entered Thursday’s game 20-11 despite the fourth-lowest payroll in the game and after losing arguably their best player, shortstop Oneil Cruz, to a fractured ankle.
Part of the reason they have been so successful is that Shelton cultivated the collaborative culture he experienced with the Rays organization in his new role in Pittsburgh.
“The one thing that translates, and this goes to, like, our whole baseball ops department, and I think it’s why the Rays are elite, is because of the lack of ego,” Shelton said Wednesday in the visitors clubhouse.
“It’s the whole organization . ... There’s no ego. There’s none. When there is a true brainstorming of ideas, it doesn’t matter who says it.”
Shelton shared that process with Pirates GM Ben Cherington when he was hired in November 2019, and they implemented it immediately.
The Pirates had not had a winning record since 2018, and their payroll limitations did not make a turnaround easy.
Shelton’s teams won only 19 times in the 60-game COVID season of 2020, then lost at least 100 games each of the next two full seasons before this year’s resurgence.
Former Pirates and Detroit Tigers manager Jim Leyland lives in Pittsburgh, and he and Shelton meet for breakfast a couple times a month. He sees Shelton’s influence in his Pirates team.
“He’s got a very calm demeanor, and he’s been very patient,” Leyland said. “It’s been pretty rough, but he’s starting to see the rewards of all that patience. … They are really fun to watch. They’re running and steal bases, they’re playing aggressive. They’ve got a good team right now. They’re a more talented team than people think.
“The way he goes about his business and the way he handles himself I think was a reflection of how the team is doing and, you know, his patience is finally being rewarded.”
Shelton, who was ejected from Wednesday’s 8-1 loss to the Rays for arguing about the pitch-clock operations, said he still stresses about results. But he is finding more enjoyment in the process.
“When you lose 100 games, coming to the ballpark every day can be a grind at times,” he said. “And the fact that the enthusiasm and the fun that our guys are having, that’s the enjoyment I get. I mean, I still stress. I still don’t sleep.
“I still do all those things, but the way our group is preparing and playing, like, that’s the enjoyment I get.”