MINNEAPOLIS -- Six months is a lot of time to sit and think. But Derek Shelton is glad he had it, and confident he’s better off for it.
Shelton, who was introduced Tuesday as the new manager of the Twins, was dismissed by Pittsburgh in early May. He took some time away from baseball entirely, then started watching it with a different viewpoint. By the time the postseason came around, his perspective had changed.
Not only has Shelton’s love for the game been rekindled, he also feels he’s more equipped to be a successful manager.
“When you have four months to think about those things … you go through different periods,” Shelton said, “and I think that the reflection period and the ability to talk to people I was around and get kind of open and honest feedback [was important]. And I do think adversity is the greatest teacher we probably can have, and I went through some adversity and learned.”
Prior to 2025, Shelton’s coaching and managing career had presented as an almost uninterrupted upward curve. He coached and managed in the Minor Leagues, then coached in the Majors. He was a hitting coach, and then the Twins’ bench coach in 2018 and 2019. The Twins seriously considered him as a managerial candidate when they hired Rocco Baldelli after 2018, and Baldelli kept Shelton on his staff.
Even so, Shelton now realizes he still had a great deal to learn when he became a manager for the first time. He’s excited to put some of that knowledge to use in a new role.
“I am a different guy [than in 2019],” he said. “In anything you do, you have life experiences, you move forward. I think the biggest thing is, when I left here, I thought I was really prepared to manage. Because I’d been given a lot of responsibility. But you’re never ready until you sit in the chair. You’re never ready until different things come your way. So I think those experiences are what help build you moving forward.”
After initially stepping away from the game entirely for a while, Shelton took a job on the “Loud Outs” show on SiriusXM radio. He made a point to credit his co-hosts from that time, former players Ryan Spilborghs and CJ Nitkowski, for helping reinvigorate him.
“Not only did they embrace me into their environment,” he said, “but they really brought my passion for baseball back. When you get let go, and they start to talk about the game and it’s ex-players, guys, so I wanted to throw a special shout-out to that group.”
Though Shelton coached in Minnesota and is close friends with Baldelli, he and Twins management were both quick to dismiss the notion that he’ll be a clone of the previous manager. He’s not even identical to who he was seven years ago.
“The thing I came away with I was most impressed by,” said Twins president of baseball and business operations Derek Falvey, “was when he talked about how he spent the last four months really diving into what could he have done differently, what could he have done better. How could he have done it in a way that would have led to more success?”
Shelton made a point to note that over more than 20 years coaching and managing, he’s taken on a wide variety of influences -- and he’s taken something from all of them.
“I learned something from every one of those guys,” Shelton said. “And I promise you, from not only that, but from the six years of managing in Pittsburgh, I learned a lot. I learned about myself, and will grow and move forward.”
One specific area where Shelton believes he will improve is in helping young players develop. That will be a critical task for the new Twins manager. If the 2026 club is to contend, it will need strong seasons from Royce Lewis, Brooks Lee and Matt Wallner.
Shelton and the club are confident that he is the right man to shepherd that group, as well as the next wave of prospects who could begin arriving in 2026.
“You're making a bet to some degree that you have the faith this person can come in, learn from those experiences,” Falvey said. “He discussed 'We could have done things a little differently here and that would have been better' as we would probably say about some of the young players in that room. He's done the same reflection and he's going to try and go through that again.”