Joel Sherman of the New York Post reports the New York Mets have reached out to the Minnesota Twins to interview their bench coach, Derek Shelton. Shelton was a candidate for the Twins job last year which went to Rocco Baldelli. The interview will take place next week according to Sherman.
For the past two years, he’s been the Twins bench coach. His previous stops included his being the Cleveland Indians Hitting Coach (2005 – 2009), Tampa Bay Rays Hitting Coach (2010 – 2016), and the Toronto Blue Jays Quality Control Coach (2017).
While he has no Major League managerial experience, he was a minor league manager in the New York Yankees system.
Shelton appears to be emerging as one of the hotter managerial candidates this offseason. There are reports the Pittsburgh Pirates have interest, and there may be other unspecified teams with interest.
In terms of the Mets, Shelton joins Carlos Belran, Joe Girardi, and Mike Bell as known candidates for the Mets job. Like Beltran and Bell, Shelton has no Major League experience.
