Pirates manager Derek Shelton feels “very secure” with his job despite another bad season

The Pittsburgh Pirates are in yet another season where things have not developed as they hoped. The club is essentially at the same point that they were last season with little to no improvement. It shows with their record as well as they are on pace for 99 losses after losing 101 games in 2021. Despite that, Pirates manager Derek Shelton, who’s in his third season of managing the club, told Audacy’s 93.7 The Fan (Pittsburgh) that he thinks he’s “very secure” in job right now.

Pittsburgh Pirates: Derek Shelton feels “very secure” in his job

Pittsburgh Pirates manager Derek Shelton told The Cook & Joe Show on Audacy’s 93.7 The Fan Pittsburgh (the flagship radio station for the club’s broadcasts) that he feels “very secure” in his job, despite what will be three losing seasons under his watch.”

“I’m very secure,” Shelton said. “We have to get better, we have to continue to keep working … Right now, my focus is on us continuing to work and to get better and to continue to get our players better.”

The terms of his contract are not publicly known and Shelton wouldn’t discuss how much longer his contract is.

“We don’t discuss any of our deals publicly …” Shelton said. “We haven’t done that since Ben or I have been there, and we won’t do it going forward.”

You can listen to the recording below (it’s the first question to him).

For the Pirates, they have long been a team that has had to rely on the draft for their talent. For their good years of 2013 through 2015, their prospects developed into great players. Players on those teams included Andrew McCutchen, Starling Marte, Josh Harrison, Gerrit Cole, and Charlie Morton, all of whom were either drafted by the Pirates and/or made their MLB debuts with the Pirates.

Before then and since, the club has not had its top prospects develop. Since Gerrit Cole (first-round pick in 2011), the only first round pick that has panned out in the majors for the Pirates is Ke’Bryan Hayes. Among those that haven’t panned out are Will Craig, Cole Tucker, Reese McGuire, Connor Joe (who is with Colorado), Austin Meadows, Shane Baz (both of whom were traded to Tampa Bay), and Kevin Newman.

Since 1986 (the draft after they drafted Barry Bonds), the only first-round picks with at least 15.0 career rWAR are McCutchen, Cole, and Jason Kendall. Between 1986 and 2018, they had 42 first-round draft picks. 26 of those 42 never made it to the majors or had a career MLB rWAR of 1.0 or less.

The Pirates cannot expect to contend when they have a track record like that, especially when it is continuing with many of their prospects and young MLB players today.