Minneapolis – Derek Shelton is a baseball lifer. He’s become accustomed to being away from his family during the season and the grind of 162 games. So, when the Pittsburgh Pirates relieved him of his managerial duties on May 8, it was a complete unknown what he’d do next.
For the first few weeks, Shelton didn’t watch any baseball. He drifted to become an avid club volleyball fan and was ecstatic about the sport. A bit too ecstatic at times, according to his wife Alison. His cheers and uproars filled the house with a voice that isn’t typically around each summer.
But after a few weeks, Shelton became a regular on the MLB Network SiriusXM Show, Loud Outs, with former players C.J. Nitkowski and Ryan Spilborghs. Add that into his weekly routine, and plenty of time to reflect on the good, bad, and ugly results in Pittsburgh, and Shelton knew he was not ready to walk away from another opportunity to manage in baseball.
His next opportunity came on Tuesday afternoon, when the Minnesota Twins introduced him as their 15th manager in franchise history.
“This organization means a ton to me, and even though I only spent a couple years here, I really feel like a member of Twins Territory,” Shelton said in his opening statement.
“So, I want to start off by thanking Joe Pohlad and the Pohlad family for the opportunity. I want to thank Dave St. Peter. I’d like to thank Derek [Falvey] and Jeremy [Zoll], both, and the whole baseball ops group – because when you sit in managerial interviews, anymore, it’s very thorough. It’s very intense. How complete they were with their process really meant a lot to me.”
Shelton’s interview process was unique from many others in the Twins search pool. He’s known Falvey dating back to his days as Cleveland’s hitting coach from 2005 to 2009, when Falvey was just starting out as an intern in an MLB front office. He also knows general manager Jeremy Zoll, who joined the team in 2019, when Shelton was still the bench coach.
Introductions and other job-interview formalities were not as necessary here for Shelton, so it paved the way for getting into the nuts and bolts of what the Twins wanted. Falvey said the three core tenets they wanted from a manager were experience, player development, care, and depth of understanding of what it means to wear a Twins jersey.
“I can tell you this, having first-hand experience with Derek over a lot of years, knowing him, how important it is for him to invest in the people, the community, the players, that showed up in the interview process,” said Falvey. “I couldn’t be more proud and thrilled to have him sitting next to us here, to come back to Minnesota to help lead this team through the next phase of its growth and development.”
“As we worked with Shelty through this process, it wasn’t just his experience; it’s his deep care that he has for everyone around him, whether that’s players, coaches, front office staff,” Zoll said. “He brings people together. He listens and challenges in equal measure. And he’s always pushing everyone to be the best they can be. Everyone who has worked with Shelty knows what you see is what you get.”
In his five months away from the game, Shelton had plenty of time to reflect on his tenure in Pittsburgh, especially with how things went at the end. The Pirates had gone 76-86 over the last two years and were 12-26 to start the season when they fired him on May 8.
It was an uphill battle from the beginning for Shelton in Pittsburgh, with his first season coming during 2020 when COVID-19 shortened the season to 60 games. But the Pirates’ front office has invested less in payroll than the Twins, with the Opening Day payroll reaching $86,464,000 —its highest during his tenure.
The pressure to perform immediately overtook the clubhouse at the end, leaving some Pirates players bitter toward Shelton. But as he’s had time to reflect on the change, Shelton is confident he’s ready to show how he’s learned and grown from everything he’s experienced over the last six seasons.
“You start talking to people you trust about what went well, and more importantly, what you should do differently,” he said.
“And how I changed. Sometimes, maybe not for the better. Sometimes, maybe you’re like, I need to do this. There were multiple people that were involved. There were people that I trusted that were involved. And I think after you do that, you take a ton of notes, and then you start to reflect. And I honestly believe, the reflection period is probably the reason that I’m in this chair right now.”
While there are still no clear answers on Minnesota’s payroll going into 2026, Shelton is beyond excited with the group he has to work with on paper right now. Many people consider the Twins to have a much better balance of talent on their roster right now than Shelton ever had to work with in Pittsburgh, aside from Paul Skenes.
The pitching staff, with Joe Ryan and Pablo López at the top of the rotation, and Byron Buxton leading the way for budding youngsters like Luke Keaschall, Brooks Lee, and Walker Jenkins. Shelton is ready to cheer them on as loudly as he did at club volleyball games and to help them reach their full potential, setting the Twins up for better success in 2026.
“I think the first thing is, I’m going to build off what happened in September,” Shelton said. “I really like what happened in September. Ultra aggressive on the bases. Started to push the envelope a little bit. I think we have to continue on that. That’s proven to be good.
“And I think with some of these other guys, it’s going to be important that Royce stays on the field. Just, very clearly. Brooks Lee continuing to take that next step forward. For me to articulate how that’s going to happen, I don’t know yet. And that’s not me moving past the question, it’s more, I’ve got to get to learn this group.”