New year, new rules for teams
Bench coach Kelly excited for change
The question was met with a head shake and smile, a reaction only those in his position could truly understand. Since Mt. Lebanon and Point Park product Don Kelly was named Pirates bench coach on Dec. 7, 2019, pretty much nothing has been normal.
“We had about three weeks of normal at the beginning of 2020,” Kelly joked before rattling off the crazy list of experiences he and others have endured.
The COVID-19 shutdown of March 2020. A truncated season later that summer. Spring training in 2021 featured a slew of precautions, including socially distanced clubhouses and players coming and going in waves.
A lockout delayed the 2022 campaign. Significant rule changes involving the banning of shifts, the implementation of a pitch clock and more await in 2023.
Through it all, it’s been Kelly’s job to manage logistics, to help manager Derek Shelton ensure the entire operation runs smoothly. It’s a difficult job in normal times and a borderline impossible one given some of what Kelly has experienced in Pittsburgh.
“Everything is always evolving and changing,” Kelly told the Post-Gazette during Tuesday’s #BurghProud Thanksgiving meal distribution event held outside of PNC Park. “You just have to bob and weave and adapt.
“The biggest thing is keeping the players at the front of what we’re trying to do and putting them in the best position to be successful.”
The Pirates are lucky to have Kelly, 42, a smart and extremely personable baseball man who’ll likely get hired as a major league
“The biggest thing is keeping the players at the front of what we’re trying to do.” — Don Kelly
manager in short order. Many fans, it seems, wouldn’t mind that happening in Pittsburgh, which makes 2023 even more important from a future-of-thePirates perspective.
No matter what, Kelly’s star continues to rise as a major league coach, as he watched his former employer — the Astros — win another World Series this fall.
Although Kelly has moved on following his one season as first base coach in Houston, he still has the utmost respect for organization stalwarts such as Jose Altuve, Lance McCullers Jr. and Alex Bregman.
“Really happy for them and the success that they’ve had,” Kelly said.
Another thing Kelly was asked about during his chat with the Post-Gazette involved the rule changes MLB will implement this upcoming season. Most noticeable will be a pitch clock — 30 seconds between batters, 15 seconds between pitches with nobody on base, 20 if there are baserunners.
The biggest change from a strategy standpoint will likely be the banning of the shift, forcing teams to deploy two infielders, cleats in the dirt, on either side of second base.
“I’m excited to see [the pitch clock],” Kelly said. “We’ll see how it shakes out. I think it’s going to be really fun and interesting. It sounds like it worked really well in the minor leagues.
“It’s going to be a change for a lot of guys, too. It’s gonna be, ‘How do we compete through it? How do we continue to grind?’ Because it is gonna be different for the players.”
Kelly certainly wasn’t the only one, but he had a significant role in Pittsburgh’s infield defense this past season. The Pirates have since added Mendy Lopez, formerly with Low-A Bradenton, to improve their infield work.
“He’s gonna be a tremendous asset for us,” Kelly said of Lopez. “Great person. Really looking forward to having him.”
The Pirates this past season made some strides in how they leveraged the shift, jumping from last in FanGraphs’ calculation of shift runs saved in 2021 (minus-1) to 14th this past season with 18.
Kelly said the Pirates immediately started drilling into how to best position fielders when they learned in September that the shift would be banned in 2023. The work remains ongoing this offseason, and Kelly said he thinks it will be a continual process throughout the regular season, assessing how teams adjust.
“We’ve been doing it in the minor leagues,” Kelly said. “Some of the stuff had already been created, so it’s just refining that to a certain degree. It’s always going to be a working process. But just trying to get to a point where we can optimize where we play the guys.”
The last topic on which Kelly spoke was the addition of Ji-Man Choi at first base. It might not have been the big fish for which many Pirates fans were hoping, but Choi did have an OPS+ (100 is league average) of 114 each of the past two seasons.
It’s possible he might not stink.
“He can hit,” Kelly said of the left-handed Choi. “He’s also fun to be around. I remember being first base coach with Houston. He was always smiling, always energetic. Put up some decent numbers last year despite dealing with some health issues. Really looking forward to seeing him healthy and competing at PNC.”