Having a father who was a former player and one of the best pitching coaches in baseball history certainly helped, but Shelley Duncan always has wanted to be a manager.
Duncan is in his fourth season with the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, and on Friday night in Worcester, Massachusetts, he managed his 1,000th career game in the minor leagues. It was a successful one too, as the RailRiders blanked the Red Sox, 2-0, behind the combined three-hit shutout by Alexander Cornielle and Bradley Hanner.
“Managing 1,000 games personally is really cool,” Duncan said. “When I think about it, it gives me that feel sometimes of when my gut is screaming at me and the conscious part of my brain might have doubt. Just that feeling of you’ve managed 1,000 games, trust it. It gives me an extra layer of confidence in decisions. It kills a lot of thoughts and negative doubts. It’s a really cool feeling to have. I can’t explain it. You just have that feeling that you’ve done something enough, it allows you to trust yourself more. It liberates your mind a lot and frees you up. It’s not a pride-ego thing. It’s a really cool feeling that’s hard to explain. That’s why it’s special.”
Duncan, 46, was drafted by the New York Yankees in the second round in 2001. He worked his way up through the farm system and made his major league debut in the Bronx on July 20, 2007.
He spent seven seasons in the major leagues: three with the Yankees, three with Cleveland and one with Tampa Bay. He played 330 games and batted .226 with 43 home runs and 144 RBI.
But even while he was playing, he thought about managing. Growing up, he was obsessed with leadership and learning about people who are at the top of their field or industry and what makes them special. He wanted to combine that with his passion for baseball.
“From a young age, I’ve always tried to look at the game from the lens of a manager,” Duncan said. “Even in my playing career, I didn’t take for granted playing for the good managers I played for and tried to learn as much as I can from every one of them, knowing that my career after playing could be longer as a coach or manager. I knew this is where ultimately the real future would be.”
So after his playing days ended in June 2014, Duncan began his managerial career in 2015 in the Arizona Diamondbacks organization. He spent two seasons with the High-A Hillsboro Hops, one year with the Low-A Visalia Rawhide and one with the Double-A Jackson Generals. He compiled a record of 231-199 and won league championships with Hillsboro in 2015 and Jackson in 2018.
For two seasons (2019-20) he worked with the Toronto Blue Jays as a major league field coordinator and a scout. Then he was an analytics coordinator with the Chicago White Sox for two seasons (2021-22). In 2023, he returned to the dugout and to the organization where he began his playing career. He has a record of 317-254 with the RailRiders. Last season, he led them to the International League championship series and was named the IL Manager of the Year.
Through Saturday, his overall managerial record is 548-453.
One might think coming back to manage at a place where he had so much success as a player — in 2009, he was the IL MVP with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre — would be special, and it is. But Duncan said the true meaning isn’t in the Yankees name, but rather the people within the organization.
“When I came back here in ’23, even though it had been 13, 14 years it felt like I was back with family,” Duncan said. “A feeling of being with people you can trust and be the best version of yourself; you don’t have to be anybody different. That’s where the meaning comes from. It’s being with the group of people I’m with, not the name on the jersey.”
Of course, Shelley’s father is Dave Duncan, who spent 30 seasons as pitching coach with Hall of Fame manager Tony LaRussa in Chicago, Oakland and St. Louis. That meant Shelley got to be around LaRussa as a kid. But he also has tried to take a little bit of something from every manager for whom he played.
“As a player, you start learning that there isn’t one right way,” Duncan said. “Tony LaRussa was successful doing things his way, Joe Torre was successful doing things his way, Joe Madden was successful doing things his way. All those guys had different styles to deliver success, but ultimately it was all based on the personnel they had. They were the best managers they could be for the group of guys they had. It wasn’t the players molding their system. They did what was best for those players.
“The cool thing about it is whatever group of guys I have, whatever situation, I don’t expect the players to morph into me. I try to create an environment and make decisions that’s best for them. You use lessons and experiences from every single manager and how different they were.”
Whenever he has the chance to tell a player he is being promoted to the major leagues, especially for the first time, Duncan still gets goosebumps. The one he remembers most is his first one in 2018 — pitcher Yoan Lopez.
“He was a castoff in the (Arizona) organization,” Duncan said. “They sent him to me all the way down in A-ball. They were fed up with him. Something we did with him changed his trajectory and he became a new person. He got everything together in Double-A. He was having such a good year, they called him straight up from Double-A. Getting to see a guy that was completely cast off, at the bottom of the barrel, make it is something I won’t forget.”
Asked what other highlights stand out for him in his managerial career, Duncan said it is not the wins, the championships nor the awards. Rather, it is seeing players and coaches he has been with have success both in and out of baseball.
“It sounds cliche, but it’s true,” Duncan said. “The moments that stand out more than anything are seeing the ones I’ve had success with down the road. Not just players or coaches I’ve coached who coach in the big leagues. Seeing players who are done playing baseball and they go into professional life and send me messages, talking about things they’ve gone through and experiences that we’ve had that have helped them be better in their career outside baseball. Those are the ones that are the most meaningful. No games, no individual stuff. None of that. It’s seeing people succeed.”
Some day, Duncan would like to manage in the major leagues. Deep down, he believes he would be good at it. However, it has to be the right time and circumstance.
“GMs find the right managers for the right situation,” Duncan said. “You could have the best manager in the whole entire world and it not be the right personality, the right guy for that situation. The GM has to hire somebody that he wants to be with every single day. There has to be a trust and a bond. Not everybody’s a match, so respect that. I’m not a match for everyone. There might be a managing job out there one day that I wouldn’t want because it’s not the job you’re going into, it’s the people you’re going into. People are the most important thing.”
