Twins To Hire Derek Shelton As Manager

The Twins are hiring Derek Shelton as their new manager, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post. Shelton returns to the Twin Cities, where he previously spent two seasons as Minnesota’s bench coach. Shelton held that role between 2018-19, spending one season apiece under Paul Molitor and Rocco Baldelli.

That familiarity with the front office surely gave him a boost in the managerial search. Shelton was a finalist during the 2018 hiring process that led Minnesota to tab Baldelli. While he didn’t get the job at that point, he only needed to wait one more year before he got a managerial opportunity. Shelton landed the top job with the Pirates going into 2020.

Pittsburgh was coming off a 69-93 season that had led ownership to fire manager Clint Hurdle and GM Neal Huntington. They brought in Ben Cherington to run the front office and Shelton to oversee a rebuilding roster. Pittsburgh went 19-41 in the shortened season, then posted consecutive 100-loss records in 2021-22.

Things appeared to be trending up by 2023. The Bucs improved to a 76-86 record that year. The next season, they hovered around .500 and were very soft deadline buyers. Pittsburgh finished with a 21-33 record in the final two months, leaving them 10 games under .500 for the second straight year. The poor finish carried into the beginning of the ’25 season. The Bucs began the year with a 12-26 record and were more or less locks for another last place showing when they fired Shelton in the second week of May. Pittsburgh played .500 ball under Don Kelly the rest of the way, so they’re sticking with a Cherington/Kelly tandem going into 2026.

More to come.