With Pittsburgh Pirates hitting coach Matt Hague entering his first season in the role, manager Derek Shelton will likely have more on his plate at the beginning of the year.
Fortunately for Hague, Shelton got his start in the coaching ranks as a hitting coach before eventually becoming the Minnesota Twins’ bench coach in 2018. Two seasons later, he was hired as the Pirates‘ manager.
Hague noted Shelton’s previous experience and how that’s going to be important for him as he finds his footing in Pittsburgh.
“With Sheltie, you really listen when he speaks because it’s a fun conversation,” Hague said in a Q&A with MLB.com’s Jim Lachimia. “It’s never dull. And I want to pick his brain, because he’s been there as a hitting coach. He’s done it, and his input is extremely valuable. What sticks out is just the extremely organic conversations and how he views what he wants. He’s very clear with his direction. I’m going to lean on him because he knows what it’s like and he’s very respectful of the hitting coach landscape.”
Shelton got his start in the New York Yankees’ organization and had experience in the minor leagues as a hitting coach and a manager from 1997 to 2002. He then joined the Cleveland Guardians’ organization as a minor league hitting coordinator and worked his way up to becoming the big league hitting coach from the middle of the 2005 season to 2009. He then was the Tampa Bay Rays’ hitting coach from 2010 to 2016 before he was fired.
After Shelton was fired by Tampa Bay, he became a quality control coach for Toronto Blue Jays in 2017 before he joined the Twins as their bench coach the following season.
Hague was drafted by the Pirates in 2008 and had two stints in the big leagues in 2012 and 2014. He also played for the Blue Jays in 2015 and eventually joined their organization as a coach. He worked his way up the ranks as a hitting coach in Double-A and Triple-A from 2021 to 2023 and spent last season as the Blue Jays’ assistant hitting coach before getting hired by the Pirates.
Hague will be tasked with turning around a Pirates offense that ranked inside the bottom-10 in most hitting stats. If he can help Pittsburgh improve at the plate while the pitching staff lives up to expectations, it could have a chance to snap its nine-year streak of missing the playoffs.
