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Jun 11, 2025; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Pittsburgh Pirates manager Don Kelly heads back to the dugout after a mound visit against the Miami Marlins at PNC Park. Mandatory Credit: Philip G. Pavely-Imagn Images Philip G. Pavely-Imagn Images

Don Kelly Optimistic About Pirates' Future Contention

Originally posted on Pittsburgh Pirates on SI
By Dominic Campbell | Last updated Sep 24, 2025 3:15 PM ET

PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Pirates haven't had the season they've wanted at all, but manager Don Kelly is optimistic about their chances going forward.

The Pirates sit 68-89 overall with five games left in the 2025 campaign. They are 26.5 games back of the Milwaukee Brewers at the top of the National League Central division, 13.0 games back in the NL Wild Card and have the fourth worst record in baseball.

This marks their seventh consecutive season below .500 and their 10th season missing the playoffs.

A poor start from the Pirates saw them fire manager Derek Shelton on May 8, with the team 12-26 overall and make Kelly, who was the bench coach, their manager.

Kelly has led the Pirates to a 56-63 record, which while not good enough to turn things around completely, is a more appropriate record for the players the team has on their roster.

They're have been great moments under Kelly, including back-to-back sweeps of the New York Mets, June 27-29, and the St. Louis Cardinals, June 30-July 2 at PNC Park. The Pirates outscored the Mets 43-4 and then shutout the Cardinals the entire series.

Pittsburgh also won eight of nine games from July 21-30, with sweeps of the Detroit Tigers at PNC Park, July 21-23, and the San Francisco Giants at Oracle Park, July 28-30, plus won 12 of 16 games from Aug. 20-Sept.4, with a sweep of the Los Angeles Dodgers at home, Sept. 2-4.

The Pirates have also had bad stretches, with eight defeats in nine games heading into the All-Star break, which extended to 11 losses in 12 games, after they suffered a sweep to the Chicago White Sox at home, July 18-20, their first series back.

They also most recently lost 12 of 13 games from Sept. 5-19, which resulted in suffering three sweeps, to the Brewers, Sept. 5-7, and the Chicago Cubs, Sept. 15-17, both at PNC Park, as well as the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards, Sept. 9-11.

Kelly spoke prior to the final home series vs. the Athletics and said that the Pirates have displayed great play over a long stretch, but also poor play, which resulted in both long winning streaks and long losing streaks.

He wants better consistency from his players and that if they can get that, they'll be much closer to a winning ball club.

“We’re not as far off as some might think," Kelly said. "We’ve shown flashes of that. I think the consistency is a big thing. Being more consistent in the day-to-day type stuff, eliminating these longer losing streaks. Find a way to win. That’s the thing. When you’re going through that. We’re at the end of the season. We’ve got nine games left. We’ve got to push, find a way to get better. We just had early hitting with nine games left and we had five guys out there hitting early, continuing to work, continuing to push to try to get better. With that mindset, we will get better. We’re not as far off as you may think. We do have to find a way to score some more runs."

Kelly also mentioned the lack of run scoring, which has proved a big part as to why the Pirates have such a poor record.

The Pirates have scored the least runs (565) and driven in the least RBIs (544), both lower than the Colorado Rockies, who have a 43-119 record, one of the worst in MLB history.

Pittsburgh also has the worst slugging percentage (.350) and OPS (.655) in the MLB, along with the least home runs (113), which is 43 less than the next two teams, the San Diego Padres and Cardinals at 146 on the year.

While the Pirates have struggled offensively, they have a great pitching staff, led by NL Cy Young Award frontrunner Paul Skenes.

They also have veteran Mitch Keller, rookies in Braxton Ashcraft, Mike Burrows, Bubba Chandler, plus Johan Oviedo, as well as bullpen arms in Justin Lawrence, Isaac Mattson, Carmen Mlodzinski, Dauri Moreta and Dennis Santana.

Pittsburgh has given up the sixth least runs (632), the seventh least earned runs (587) and lowest ERA (3.81) in the MLB and the third least for those categories in the NL, behind the Padres and Brewers, who both clinched playoff spots.

Kelly, who had playoff success with the Detroit Tigers, including making the World Series in 2012, knows what it takes to get to that level and wants to do his best to get the Pirates to that stage.

“We need to continue to get better in all aspects," Kelly said. "It’s hard to point to one thing. We can sit here and point to the offense, we haven’t been where we need to be. We need to get better with that. We need to get better on the bases. We need to get better defensively. We play pretty good defense but the other day it costs us a game. How do we continue to have that mindset where we can get better to do the things we need to do? From a pitching standpoint, how do we clean up some of the mechanical stuff to be able to dominate the pillars we have of being in the strike zone, getting ahead in the count and putting guys away? Honestly, it never stops."

"That’s the mindset that I want our staff to take, our players to take, is that you can never stop getting better. Where we’re at right now, next year fighting for a playoff spot. Is that a wild card? Is that the division? Then, eventually, the ultimate goal is to win the whole thing – which I have not been able to be a part of. I finished second two times. When you talk about playoff baseball, that’s what we play for, that’s what we sacrifice for all the time, to be in that moment, to play in October, where you can’t even walk outside because the media here – in the office it feels a little bit big but when you get to the World Series you can’t even get out to the field because there’s so much media on the warning track. That’s what you play baseball for, to experience that and win. That’s what our goal is, to continue to strive for that.”

This article first appeared on Pittsburgh Pirates on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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