The Minnesota Twins introduced former bench coach Derek Shelton, who managed the Pittsburgh Pirates for five-plus years, as their new manager on Tuesday at Target Field. KSTP Sports was there.
Our Chris Long and Darren ‘Doogie’ Wolfson spent a few minutes with Shelton following the news conference.
***Click the video box above to watch our 1-on-1 conversation with Shelton***
Shelton had an overall record of 306-440 with the Pirates before he was fired on May 8, just 40 games into this season. The 55-year-old was the bench coach for the Twins in 2018 and 2019 under two different managers, Paul Molitor and Rocco Baldelli.
Long also spoke 1-on-1 with Alison Shelton, Derek’s wife. The family is pumped to return to the Twin Cities.
***Click the video box below to watch our chat with Alison Shelton, or if on our app, swipe to the right***
Shelton will be the 15th manager of the Twins, who began in 1961 after the franchise moved from Washington, but he’s the first hire in their history with previous experience as a major league manager. Shelton, a native of Carbondale, Illinois, began his professional coaching career in 1997 in the New York Yankees farm system he played two seasons in. He had major league jobs on staffs with Cleveland, Tampa Bay and Toronto, with a total of 12 seasons as a hitting coach.
Tom Kelly is the one manager in Twins history that has led the franchise to a World Series win. In fact, he did so twice, in 1987 and 1991.
Kelly was at Tuesday’s news conference and KSTP Sports spoke with him. Shelton gave Kelly a shout-out before taking any questions.
***Click the video box below to watch our chat with Kelly, or if on our app, swipe to the right***
New York Yankees hitting coach James Rowson, who held that role for the Twins under both Molitor and Baldelli before leaving to become bench coach of the Miami Marlins in 2020, was also one of the finalists.
We spoke with president of operations Derek Falvey about the process that led to Shelton getting the job.
***Click the video box below to watch our chat with Falvey, or if on our app, swipe to the right***
The Twins are 82-119 over their last 201 games for a .408 winning percentage, and that includes a 13-game winning streak this season.
Attendance has swooned at Target Field. The Twins finished with their lowest total for 81 home games (a little more than 1.7 million tickets sold) in a non-pandemic season since 2000.
It’s now on Shelton and the front office to find a way to help the Twins return to their winning ways.
The Associated Press contributed to this story
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