The Pittsburgh Pirates are going into the 2026 season with manager Don Kelly, who is going into first full season as their manager. Kelly was the interim manager last season after the Bucs fired Derek Shelton after he started the season 12-26. After firing Shelton, The Pirates went 59-65 under Kelly.
Kelly has brought in a lot of fresh faces to fill out the coaching staff going into this 2026 season. The pitching coach Bill Murphy, bench coach Kristopher Negrón and third-base coach Tony Beasley are
some of the new recent hires. Also coming to the staff are assistant pitching coach Thomas Whitsett and Major League field coordinator Shawn Bowman. Chris Truby will be the infield coach, he joined the staff last May after Kelly was named manager.
Bowman spent most of last season as the manager for Triple-A Indianapolis, he took over the job after Truby was moved to the Major League staff. He also spent three seasons as the Minor League field coordinator from 2022-2024.
There are Eight coaches from last year’s staff that will return in the same roles: first-base coach Tarrik Brock, catching coach Jordan Comadena, hitting coach Matt Hague, bullpen catcher Raúl Hernandez, assistant hitting coaches Christian Marrera and Jonny Tucker, translator and assistant coach Stephen Morales and bullpen coach Miguel Perez.
Bill Murphy and Thomas Whitsett are coming from Houston, Whitsett was the assistant minor league pitching coordinator in 2023. He was also the pitching coach of their Triple-A affiliate at Sugar Land in 2024. He was a coach in the Astros’ system in 2022 and served as the director of player development for pitchers at the University of Arizona in 2021.
Pittsburgh is coming into this season with a great mixture of new to familiar faces. Their decision to keep Kelly after the firing of Shelton was the right choice. It seemed like the team played harder for Kelly than they ever did for the seasons Derek Shelton was there. Kelly has brought in some good coaches with solid experience and the expectations are surprisingly high for this squad for the 2026 season.
