PITTSBURGH -- If everything had gone according to plan, Derek Shelton would have been wrapping up the opening week of his first season as a Major League manager on Wednesday with a game at Wrigley Field before flying back to Pittsburgh. Instead, Shelton spent the past week like many people around the United States: hanging out with family at home, missing baseball and watching a lot of Netflix.

And just like the rest of us, Shelton isn’t sure exactly when baseball will return. It’s a matter of speculation and waiting for the coronavirus pandemic to subside. So the Pirates' manager is taking the approach you often hear promoted by professional athletes: one day at a time, focusing only on the things he can control.

“If you don’t stay positive in situations like this, then the days get a lot longer,” Shelton said during an interview with KDKA-FM on Wednesday. “Basically the main message is to stay positive, keep working on the things we can work on and, when we do start, really appreciate the game we have.”

From his home near St. Petersburg, Fla., Shelton remains in regular contact with the Pirates’ players, coaching staff and front office. He said they’ve been able to use this downtime to review the work they did during the first five weeks of Spring Training, which he views as a benefit as a new manager with a new general manager (Ben Cherington) and several new coaches (Don Kelly, Oscar Marin, Mike Rabelo, Tarrik Brock and Glenn Sherlock).

Still, it’s been challenging to stay patient. From a personal standpoint, Shelton’s first week would have taken him from Tampa Bay (his former employer) to Chicago (where he would’ve had high school friends and family in attendance) to PNC Park (“I don’t think there’s a more beautiful place in baseball,” he said).

As a team, the Pirates had reached the point of Spring Training where they were nearly ready for the season to begin. Now, they simply don’t know when Opening Day might arrive.

“Because we don’t have a startup date, we just have to make sure that our guys stay in shape and we keep [pitchers’] arms moving,” Shelton said on KDKA-FM. “The one thing that’s different than most offseasons is [in the] offseason you know when Spring Training’s going to start. We don’t know when we’re going to start, so we just have to make sure that our guys stay active, stay moving and they’re staying in shape.”

Pirates pitcher Jameson Taillon said earlier this week that players would be willing to accept some changes in order to play as soon as it’s deemed safe to do so. Shelton is also on board with doing whatever it takes to return to the field.

“Any way we can get back to playing baseball is the most important thing. Depending on how we’re going to condense the season and the speculation on that, I think we have to wait 'til we get to that point,” Shelton said. “I think we’re at the point where everyone just wants the game to start. If there are certain adjustments that we have to make in a short time period for there to be baseball on the field, then I’m all for that. I don’t know what those things are.

“I think we’re at the point where we just want baseball to come back.”

In the meantime, Shelton is enjoying the time he gets to be with his wife, Alison, and their children. He joked that he’s “absolutely the worst homeschool teacher in the history of homeschooling.” He’s excited to watch ESPN’s documentary series about Michael Jordan. He’s still reading a book about the life of Pirates icon Roberto Clemente.

And yes, he and Alison binge-watched the popular Netflix documentary series “Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness.” The night the seven-episode series was released, he said, they stayed up watching it until 3:30 a.m. During an appearance on ESPN Radio on Wednesday morning, Shelton was introduced as “fellow Tiger King enthusiast and Pirates manager” and spent more time talking about Joe Exotic and Carole Baskin than the delayed baseball season.

"Honestly, it's been a nice thing for us ... it sounds like as a country,” Shelton said on ESPN, “because it's definitely taken our minds away for at least seven hours from what's going on.”