All you need to know about how long is Derek Shelton’s new contract extension with the Pittsburgh Pirates who are off to a good start.
The Pittsburgh Pirates are currently enjoying their most successful beginning to a season since the 1992 campaign. It was sufficient to earn manager Derek Shelton a contract extension as a result of his performance. Shelton’s previous contract was set to expire after the 2023 season, but the Pirates have not disclosed the specifics of the new deal that they have reached with him.
Shelton is in his fourth year as the Pirates’ manager, but this is the first year in which he has seen any real signs of success during his tenure with the team. The Pirates had a losing record of 100 games in each of the two seasons prior to the 2020 season and were on pace to lose that many games despite the abbreviated schedule. When the extension was finalized, Shelton’s career record stood at a respectable even 142-242.
You have to take into account the context of this situation in addition to the fact that Shelton’s body of work might not strike you as particularly remarkable or as something that justifies an extension of his contract. Shelton has never really been given the opportunity to “manage” a team that is actively competing. The roster that he has been working with throughout his first three full seasons has been devoid of talent from top to bottom. At the beginning of his tenure, the development of individual players was given priority over actually winning baseball games.
The Pirates have emerged as one of the most surprising teams in the league thanks to a surprising start from their pitching rotation, a few under-the-radar additions made during the offseason, and some young talent that is starting to show promise.
At Southern Illinois University, where he was a member of the baseball team known as the Salukis, Derek Shelton received his education. During his sophomore season with the Salukis in 1990, the team won 49 games, took first place in the Missouri Valley Conference, and competed in the NCAA Tournament. During his junior year in 1991, when Shelton was competing in the Missouri Valley Conference, he led the league by throwing out 43% of opposing baserunners who attempted to steal.
In 1992 and 1993, Shelton played the position of catcher in the minor leagues for the New York Yankees organization. Between the years 2000 and 2002, he managed various minor league teams affiliated with the Yankees. His teams had a winning percentage of.624, and he managed several players who went on to have successful careers in Major League Baseball, such as Robinson Cano, Dioner Navarro, and Chien-Ming Wang.
After working as the hitting coach for the Cleveland Indians for a total of five seasons, he left that position in order to take up the same role with the Tampa Bay Rays after the 2009 season concluded. In September 2016, the Rays dismissed him from the team. The Toronto Blue Jays made the announcement on December 12, 2016, that they would hire him for the position of quality control coach for the 2017 season. Shelton was hired by the Minnesota Twins on November 6, 2017, to serve as the team’s bench coach for the 2018 season.
Shelton was officially introduced as the new manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates on November 27, 2019. Shelton was appointed as the 41st manager in the club’s long and illustrious history.
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