Grading the Twins' Hiring of Derek Shelton

[Cody Christie]

Image courtesy of John Bonnes

The Twins formally introduced Derek Shelton on Tuesday as the team’s next manager, bringing him back to Minnesota after a five-and-a-half-year stint leading the Pittsburgh Pirates. Shelton was a member of Rocco Baldelli’s original coaching staff in 2019, and now returns to a much different Twins organization—one trying to reset after a flurry of trades and disappointing ends to the last two seasons. The question now is simple: was this the right hire for where the franchise stands?

The Pros
Shelton’s return comes with several clear positives. First and foremost, he is familiar with the Twins organization and its existing infrastructure. He understands the analytical approach the front office values and has established relationships with several players and staff members. That continuity could help smooth what might otherwise be a rocky transition.

During his time in Pittsburgh, Shelton worked through an extended rebuild. He understands the challenges of developing young talent at the major-league level, while keeping a clubhouse motivated. With the Twins’ roster turning over and several prospects poised to debut in 2026, that experience could prove valuable.

Another notable strength is his background as a hitting coach. Before managing the Pirates, Shelton spent time as the hitting coach for both the Rays and Guardians, earning a reputation for improving plate discipline and approach. Minnesota’s offense struggled with inconsistency in 2025, so his input could help reignite bats that have gone quiet.

Finally, Shelton’s even-keeled demeanor may help stabilize a team that has faced its share of turbulence. He’s regarded as a strong communicator who values collaboration—a trait that often resonates in the Twins’ organizational culture.

The Cons
Of course, the hire is not without its drawbacks. Shelton is not a new voice or an outsider who can bring a fresh perspective to a club that appears to have lost some of its edge. In some ways, this is a continuation of the same philosophy, rather than a bold new direction.

His track record in Pittsburgh also raises questions. While the Pirates improved modestly during his tenure, they never posted a winning record under his watch. That doesn’t necessarily fall squarely on Shelton’s shoulders, but it does beg the question of whether he’s capable of elevating a team beyond the sum of its parts.

The Twins also passed on the chance to hire a younger or first-time manager who might’ve brought a new energy or approach to a roster in transition. Names like Stephen Vogt have shown that untested candidates can thrive quickly with the proper support. Instead, Minnesota opted for a safe, familiar choice, one that might not spark much excitement among fans.

There’s also the risk that Shelton’s calm style could border on complacency if things go south. The Twins need a leader who can push players to take the next step, not merely guide them through the motions of a rebuild.

The Final Grade
Overall, the Shelton hire feels solid but unspectacular. It's a move rooted in familiarity rather than risk. He checks many boxes the Twins value, but it’s fair to wonder if this decision will actually change the team’s trajectory.

 

Grade: B-

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What do you think of the Twins bringing Derek Shelton back to Minnesota? Is he the right fit for this roster, or should the front office have looked elsewhere? Leave a comment and start the discussion. 

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[tony&rodney]

Shelton should leave uniform #8 for a player. That could be his first contribution to the team.

[laloesch]

B- ! 

That's far too generous.  I would grading the hiring of Derek Shelton by the Twins a solid F.

Not kidding. 

[rdehring]

Have a suggestion, Cody.  How about waiting until next November to grade him?  You know, give him a year to see how he actually does as Manager?

[mikelink45]

I give him a D - safe and boring, uninspiring and another loss of Twins Fan excitement after so many disappointments for all of us.  If there was one thing the Twins needed to kickstart a resurgence in fan enthusiasm it would have been to grab a new, energetic manager who could fire up the team and the fans - at least through Spring Training.  There will be a lot of seats available for Shelton to give to friends and family.  

[Whitey333]

A B-?  Really a B- .  Way too high.  I'd give him a solid D.  He may be a fine person  and a very good baseball man but he doesn't move the needle at all.  I believe the point of the article was grading the Twins hiring of Shelton.  In that regard it was a bad choice.  The Twins needed someone with a winning resume not a sleepwalking to maintain the status quo.  IMO this just signals more of the same Twins bs.  Maybe this is the only person that really wanted the job.  I mean after all who else would hire a manager with a winning percentage of 400?  His presser was classic Falvey style:  speak corporate junk and don't say anything of substance.  It points to a other long stretch of minor league baseball disguised as Major League Baseball.  It also points to another year of record poor attendance.  Does anyone care anymore?  After 6 decades of following the Twins in am very close to giving up 

[Patzky]

44 minutes ago, tony&rodney said:

Shelton should leave uniform #8 for a player. That could be his first contribution to the team.

The first thing I thought was, Vazquez found out the hard way he's no longer needed.

[DaveW44]

We hired a guy nobody else wanted, who lost frequently and got fired in Pittsburgh. I’d give it a solid D-  

but really, with the squad he’s going to have to work with in MN, who else would really want this job? We’ve become the Oakland A’s , only the A”s are way better than we are now. 

[Mike h]

LI have a couple thoughts.  The first is that Shelton’s strength is as a hitting coach, and he has been very successful at that.  I would have been very excited if he had been brought in to coach hitters rather than manage, but if he dedicates a lot of his time working with hitters anyway, I will be hopeful.

My second thought is that because this is a team in turmoil, they were never going to get the A+ manager that they are looking for.  Shelton may be sort of an interim manager whose job is to steer the ship through the storm,  which may take a couple years, and when the chaos becomes stabilized they’ll be ready to go full steam ahead and then they can look for their manager of the future.  I wish it could have happened now, but this is reality as I see it due to the hole Falvey dug for this team.

[Blyleven2011]

Nothing more and nothing less , it's what we expected from the operations department  

The B grade our OP gave them seems alittle high , a possible C- , nothing inspiring and the grade for the introduction press conference a F ....

[Nashvilletwin]

I’d be interested in a poll of TDers to see where the “grades” of the broader Twins’ community fall.  I’d wager that Cody’s B- would be the highest and not by a close margin.

Of course, we’d have to exclude the Nephew’s and Falvey’s votes.  We could keep Shelton’s though - even he thinks he’s a D hire at best.

[Woof Bronzer]

If a corporation hired as their new COO the former COO of a less successful competitor who just got fired after five years of failure and doesn't have a previous track record of success, under the sole qualification that the person worked there for 2 years back in the day in a lesser role, I think employees would grade that significantly lower than a B-.  

[Stew]

I have an idea. Make the twins a triple A club for the dodgers or Yankees. When they want a player they can pay the pohlads for the players. That way they can keep there down.

[Rod Carews Birthday]

Cody, if you’re grading the Twins management for the hiring process, it could be a B-.  Not sure how to really know before we see Shelton manage, but I will certainly agree that it wasn’t an out of the box, splashy hire.  So, on that basis of a lack of imagination by the Twins, I get it.  

I hope that Twins fans give Shelton a chance.  Many are already calling him a failure, which is ridiculous.  We have almost no idea how this will turn out and pre-judging it isn’t fair to Shelton, the Twins or the fans.  Let the man come in and do his job.  The much bigger issue is for ownership to put some players in place that will give him a chance to succeed.  That will be the grade that truly matters.  

[T.O.]

I think we got stung by a B, minus.

[Craig Arko]

1 hour ago, rdehring said:

Have a suggestion, Cody.  How about waiting until next November to grade him?  You know, give him a year to see how he actually does as Manager?

At least hold out until Spring training to break out the torches and pitchforks. 

[jmlease1]

B- seems fair.

I mean, some people are going to give any hire made by Falvey or the Pohalds an automatic deduction and presume that anyone they bring in can't be higher than a C and will grade them lower with a D or F without any real reference to what Derek Shelton might bring to the table or his actual deficits as a manager might be, so there's certainly that.

I think it's very difficult to grade most managerial hires, since the bulk of the job is behind the scenes, and most of them are media savvy enough at this point to not say anything substantive in their press conferences?

Shelton didn't get it done in his first managerial stint. Was it because he's a bad manager, or because the Pirates stink, their minor league system didn't develop much talent, the front office never signed anyone impactful, and their trades haven't yielded nearly enough wins?

Someone like Torii Hunter might have been a sexier pick, but would he have actually been a better one? Frankly, I'm skeptical. Great players are usually not great managers. It's not like the organization Torii's been working in has accomplished anything while he's been advising/coaching/assistanting; in fact they've been seen as one of the more dysfunctional.

Would we have been better off with someone with no prior ties to the organization? That's certainly a knife that cuts both ways. Who knows?

B- seems fine. Seems like a good enough guy, so let's hope he can do some things.

[Mahoning]

He's stuck with the players he has. When the Twins play, say, the Yankees, the Yanks will have a better player at eight of the nine spots on the diamond. What is Shelton supposed to do about that? How can anyone be evaluated in such circumstances?

[The Great Hambino]

I'm still trying to understand why familiarity was such an important trait in a potential manager for an organization that needs a complete change in voice and direction

[Finlander]

At least managing a team that is expected to lose won't frustrate him - he's been used to that in Pittsburg. He also has some familiarity with many of the players already. While a seemingly uninspiring hire, I give it a cautiously optimistic C for now, just for his knowing the situation he's coming into.

[AKTwinsFan]

Probably also came down to money. Usually always does. Joe and Co. don't seem to know how to make a profitable investment or structure into a team. If they want to make money you need to win games. Or at least be fun to watch. If we did this after last season maybe we might have had different success and people would have come to watch. At least most of the other MN teams bring in decent coaches. 

[Doctor Gast]

Being familiar doesn't mean Baldelli 2,0. Shelton was a good balance with Baldelli in '19 & Baldelli stated that he leaned heavily on Shelton. Shelton was far down on my list, but IMO as far as managers go, Shelton is fine. A manager is only as good as the staff he brings with him. If they hire LaTroy Hawkins as BP coach, Nellie Cruz as hitting/ 1B coach, Tori Hunter as OF/ 3B coach & Charlie Greene as the bench coach. Shelton & Greene were both catchers & Green was the MIL development/ catching coach, so I'm sure they can find a super catching coach. 

I like to give grace to people, so I'll give him a B grade. But he could end up with an A or an F, depending on his staff. But with Falvey as POBO, I doubt that Falvey will trade for needed pieces that'll make Shelton's job that much harder (with catching & BP in a mess), so I'd predict a grade on the team he'll manage no higher than C, not competing for the postseason. That should have no bearing on who Shelton is as a manager, only on Falvey.

[rdehring]

2 hours ago, Mahoning said:

He's stuck with the players he has. When the Twins play, say, the Yankees, the Yanks will have a better player at eight of the nine spots on the diamond. What is Shelton supposed to do about that? How can anyone be evaluated in such circumstances?

Very true, Mahoning.

Now should Buxton stay healthy and plays like this year, Lewis remains healthy and becomes the player he could/should be, and Keaschall improves rather than has that sophomore slump, the Yankees may only have the better player at six of the nine spots.  That would be an improvement from 2025, a big improvement.

[Omardog]

Is there any reporting about the terms of his deal?  In particular, how many years he got?  Because this hiring doesn't warrant a "grade," rather it gets a label:  place holder.  I'm guessing he got two years and will be gone as soon as the grifting silver spoon Pohlads sell the franchise and the new owners blow out the incompetent Falvey.

[old nurse]

Shelby might not know many in the front office. Most of the front office that he would deal with now were not in their current position when he worked here. I don’t know why a bench coach would be working with the minor league operations guys.  When he was here the hitting philosophy was the Bomba Squad.  I think Sabato was the last high draft pick that was in that mold. So I doubt that he would know the organizational philosophy. Hopefully his days as a hitting coach taught him that you can’t make a player what they are not as a hitter. None of the sleuths here have come up with complaints about how he handled the Pittsburgh pitching staff.

[nddan67]

Lets see how spring training goes.  If he remembers to hold pitchers fielding practice that would be a step ahead of last spring.

[David Maro]

You can't grade someone until the start of the season. In the first week of the season if he is rotating players all over the diamond like Rocco that will tell a story no fan wants to see. We also have to see if and who he brings in as coaches. That will also show how much Falvey has his hand in things. Changes have to come and that includes coaching and philosophy. The Tigers, Guardians and Royals aren't going anywhere.

[DocBauer]

No thought of a grade on my end. As already stated more than once, how about we actually see what he does on the job for a season first?

Right now, I'm waiting to see what his staff looks like. He's probably not going to spend much time, if at all, as a hitting instructor. But can he assemble a good set of hitting coaches to work with current players, and those that will be debuting soon? 

Ask me this time in 2026 and I'll have a graded opinion.

[mikelink45]

6 hours ago, Craig Arko said:

At least hold out until Spring training to break out the torches and pitchforks. 

Why. What else have the Twins FO given us?   

[Craig Arko]

17 minutes ago, mikelink45 said:

Why. What else have the Twins FO given us?   

Hours of opportunities to bitch. It almost seems like people relish that time.