The Pittsburgh Pirates have had a terrible start to the 2025 MLB season as they currently sit last in the National League Central division.
Pittsburgh has begun the season with an abysmal 12-26 record that not only has them sitting last in the NL Central, but they have the third-worst record in the MLB behind only the Colorado Rockies and Chicago White Sox.
The Pirates have also lost seven consecutive games as they are coming off being swept in back-to-back series by San Diego Padres and St. Louis Cardinals and because of this, they decided to make a major change ahead of their weekend series against the Atlanta Braves.
On Thursday, the Pirates announced that they have fired their manager, Derek Shelton, and that their bench coach, Don Kelly, has been promoted to be their interim manager.
This is a massive decision early in the season but one that looked as though it was inevitable after their horrible start.
Of course, Shelton has been the manager of the Pirates since 2020 and he will finish his career with the team with a 306-440 record.
It looked as though the Pirates were on their way back to being a contender over the last two seasons after finishing both the 2023 and 2024 seasons with a 76-86 record, but they have failed to improve this season.
This season, the Pirates rank in the bottom five in batting average, OBP, SLG and OPS on the offensive side, while they also rank in the bottom 10 in ERA on the pitching side.
While the Pirates’ pitching staff, led by Paul Skenes, has struggled at times this season, it has been their offensive output that has had a major impact on their poor start and they decided that it was a perfect time in the season to move on from Shelton.
Now the Pirates will look to turn their season around with Kelly as their manager and his first game as manager will take place on Friday night as they begin a three-game home stand against the Braves.
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