The lowly Pirates have a new captain.
On Thursday, the Pittsburgh Pirates announced that manager Derek Shelton has been relieved of his duties. Bench coach Don Kelly, a Pittsburgh native who has been with the club since 2020, will take over as manager. It is the earliest in an MLB season that a manager has gotten fired since 2018, when Cincinnati canned Bryan Price on April 19 after his club started 3-15.
Predictably, the Pirates' news release contained enough word soup from GM Ben Cherington and owner Bob Nutting to feed a small village.
Hired in November 2019, Shelton leaves the Steel City with a 306-440 record.