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<\/p>\nPITTSBURGH \u2014 Derek Shelton toured the Roberto Clemente Museum with his team upon arriving in town the night before. He fielded questions from a dozen local reporters Friday afternoon about returning to his home of five-plus seasons. During a national television interview later, the Minnesota Twins\u2019 manager reaffirmed his love for PNC Park, calling it \u201cspecial.\u201d<\/p>\n
All that was missing was a victory.<\/p>\n
Back for the first time since he was fired as the Pittsburgh Pirates\u2019 manager on May 8, 2025, Shelton was two outs from a victorious return. But Pirates star Bryan Reynolds wrecked the moment, belting a two-run walk-off homer off Taylor Rogers as the Twins fell 6-5, losing for the fourth time in five games.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Reynolds is) a good hitter,\u201d Shelton said. \u201cI know that because I was here for a long time and saw him do a lot of good things. Taylor just missed his spot. We played good baseball. We got out of the jam in the eighth. \u2026 We just made a mistake in the middle of the plate, and (Reynolds) capitalized on it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Much of the talk since Shelton was hired by the Twins on Oct. 29 is how he\u2019s trying to capitalize on a fresh start. Dismissed 38 games into his sixth season with the Pirates, Shelton spent most of his first summer at home reflecting on what went wrong.<\/p>\n
Were he to ever receive another opportunity, Shelton wanted to know how he\u2019d need to operate differently. Via multiple conversations with his former boss, Pirates general manager Ben Cherington, or reaching out to friends across the league, Shelton looked inward.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n Between being fired by the Pirates and hired by the Twins, Derek Shelton focused on what he\u2019d learned from the managers he played for and coached in his pro career. (David Richard \/ Imagn Images)<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew he would take that seriously,\u201d Cherington said. \u201cI thought at the time it could be pretty good for him. \u2026 I said at the time, if he got another opportunity \u2014 and now he has, and I\u2019m really happy about that \u2014 I\u2019d certainly bet on him doing well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shelton, who also worked last season as an on-air host and analyst for SiriusXM\u2019s MLB Network Radio, focused on what he\u2019d learned from each of the managers he played for and coached with during a pro career that began in 1992. He also reached out to other managers he respected in a quest for knowledge.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you don\u2019t learn and grow from it, you\u2019re doing it wrong,\u201d said St. Louis Cardinals executive Chaim Bloom, who worked with Shelton in Tampa Bay when he was a hitting coach. \u201c(Shelton) has always been the student of the game. He\u2019s a learner. \u2026 He was always someone that, even as a hitting coach, saw the bigger picture.\u201d<\/p>\n
Two of Shelton\u2019s biggest takeaways from his introspective period were the need to improve his communication skills and that his attention to detail had been lacking near the end of his Pittsburgh tenure.<\/p>\n
Known during his time with the Twins as an outstanding communicator, Shelton felt he needed to be even better at delivering difficult messages to players. Were he to deliver tough news to a player, Shelton determined a follow-up conversation with the receiving player was necessary.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s just a learned experience,\u201d Shelton said. \u201cIt\u2019s something that I don\u2019t think I did a great job of last year, and probably at the end of \u201924, and want to make sure I do a better job of personally as a leader going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
And when Shelton assembled his coaching staff, he looked for coaches with different skill sets from his to round out the group and pay attention to every detail imaginable.<\/p>\n
He thought doing so would help the Twins squeeze every ounce out of ability out of the roster. One coach who fits that bill is bench coach Mark Hallberg, whose analytical skills complement Shelton nicely. Shelton also highlighted first-base\/outfield coach Grady Sizemore, whose detailed work has resulted in improved defense from Trevor Larnach and helped Austin Martin make a smooth transition to right field.<\/p>\n
Josh Bell played for Shelton in Pittsburgh during the COVID-19-shortened 2020 season. Though Shelton is largely the same charismatic leader, Bell sees some tiny but critical differences.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s the same guy in the clubhouse,\u201d Bell said. \u201cHe wants you to feel comfortable. He wants us to get after it. I think there is a lot more attention to detail in between the lines in the workday. Just preparation and stuff like that. I think he\u2019s doing a great job. I don\u2019t think we could ask for anything more.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nobody in Pittsburgh would blame Shelton if he had wanted more resources during his run as the team\u2019s manager. Never higher than $86 million in 2024 and 2025, Pittsburgh\u2019s payroll ranked between No. 26 and No. 30 out of 30 teams in each of Shelton\u2019s six seasons.<\/p>\n
Though Shelton flirted with .500 in multiple seasons, his Pirates clubs never won more than 76 games. Working with largely underfunded rosters, Shelton guided Pittsburgh to a 306-440 record (.410 winning percentage).<\/p>\n
This season, the Pirates increased their payroll to nearly $105 million, which ranks No. 22 in the majors. After Friday\u2019s victory, the team\u2019s record is 30-28. Though he hated being sent home early last season, Shelton said he harbors no ill will toward his former team.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will never look back on it in a negative connotation, regardless of how anything went down, how it went,\u201d Shelton said. \u201cDo I wish we would have had better teams here? Yeah. Was some of that out of my control? Yeah. But, like, looking back at it negatively, I will never do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rojas to 15-day injured list<\/p>\n
An MRI taken Friday revealed that hard thrower Kendry Rojas is dealing with inflammation in his left triceps muscle. Rojas was scratched from Thursday\u2019s game with left elbow soreness and sent back to Minneapolis for imaging.<\/p>\n
Rojas, who has a 1.26 ERA with 14 strikeouts in 14 1\/3 innings, will be re-evaluated by the training staff when the Twins return to Target Field on Monday.<\/p>\n
The Twins promoted Cody Laweryson and Kody Funderburk before Friday\u2019s contest to add fresh arms to the bullpen. Along with placing Rojas on the IL, the Twins optioned Travis Adams back to Triple-A St. Paul.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PITTSBURGH \u2014 Derek Shelton toured the Roberto Clemente Museum with his team upon arriving in town the night…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":673981,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[2326,363,2240,99],"class_list":["post-673980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-minnesota-twins","tag-mlb","tag-pittsburgh-pirates","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=673980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673980\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/673981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=673980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=673980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=673980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}