PITTSBURGH — The headline, you'll notice, doesn't say "great job" or "superior job" or "Manager of the Year-worthy job."

It doesn't even say "good job."

It says decent job.

So calm down.

I'm not sure, given the circumstances, how anybody could disagree with the notion that Pirates manager Derek Shelton has done a decent job to steer his team to an even .500 record (48-48) going into the second half of the season.

Let's travel back to late March, shall we?

If I'd told you then that All-Star closer David Bednar would blow as many saves (three) in the first 11 days as he did all of last season, then regain his form, then miss nearly a month, and that Paul Skenes would not arrive until May 11, and that the bullpen would crumble amid injuries and ineffectiveness and that Henry Davis and Jack Suwinski would disintegrate and that four of the five starting pitchers in the season-opening rotation would miss time — including Marco Gonzales for nearly three months — and that so many of general manager Ben Cherington's offseason moves would bomb, would you have signed up for a .500 record at the All-Star break?

I surely would have.

It's only sensible, then, to give the manager some credit. Just a little, even as so many others want to run him out of town. He must be doing something right.

Yes, some of Shelton's pitching moves drive me nuts. But isn't that the case with any manager?

Always remember, too, that innings limits and such are often driven from powers above — even if Cherington absolved himself of the decision to remove Jared Jones from a brilliant start after 59 pitches, saying the coaches made that call on their own (Shelton, meanwhile, said limiting Jones to five innings was a group decision made before the game. I have to believe Cherington would be heavily involved in such a decision. He certainly should be — and absolutely should have taken the hit when everything exploded after a 3-1 loss).

For all the upset and outrage over bullpen usage, the Pirates are 37-4 when leading after seven innings.

And yes, Shelton's lineups sometimes leave me baffled. One game, in particular, stands out: a get-away Thursday afternoon, June 13th, in St. Louis against the hated Cardinals— the rubber match of a three-game set. Shelton kept three of his better hitters at the time — Andrew McCutchen, Nick Gonzales, Connor Joe — nailed to the bench for the entire game, not even letting one pinch hit for the likes of Michael A. Taylor or Jared Triolo. Or Yasmani Grandal. Or Jack Suwinski. It was maddening.

But it also brings us back to the rotten roster. People keep wanting Shelton to use a set lineup, to which I always say, utilizing which players? Edward Olivares was positioned like Barry Bonds in this lineup — and this is a guy who went 63 at-bats, over a month-and-a-half, without an extra-base hit before he was demoted.

Taylor has been a disaster. Grandal hasn't hit. Pretty much every player on the roster has gone through abnormally long slumps, and that would include All-Star Bryan Reynolds, who did nearly nothing for two months before morphing into Joe DiMaggio.

No manager in baseball history could have configured a workable lineup, let alone a potent one, out of the ingredients handed him by Cherington.

I would also say that Shelton deserves some blame for the hitting malfunctions. He made his bones as a batting instructor, after all. His allegiance to hitting coach Andy Haines could also be viewed as a demerit, although such decisions always go back to Cherington and even to Bob Nutting, who could take a cue from Steelers owner Art Rooney II and step in on such personnel matters from time to time.

Other charges against Shelton are just plain silly. As an example, people want to blame him for bad baserunning and other fundamental miscues.

First of all, players learn in Little League not to try to advance to third on a ground-ball hit in front of them. The Pirates have done that with maddening frequency, but they are generally a decent baserunning team, according to every available metric. They've also been an excellent defensive team over the past month-plus.

The idea that Shelton is too easy on players might have merit. You'd like to see him use somebody as an example once in a while.

But believe it or not, he also does some things right. He removed Mitch Keller abnormally early on Sunday, even though Keller wanted to continue and could have, and it proved to be the right call. Shelton also moved McCutchen into the leadoff spot early in the season and stuck with him, which worked for a while. Patience with Rowdy Tellez paid off, as well.

The clock on Shelton, from where I sit, began at the beginning of 2023. Before that, the Pirates were in a massive rebuild, basically tanking for draft position.

The start of last season marked the start of trying to win again. Shelton is 124-134 since then. That's a winning percentage of .480, and that won't be good enough moving forward. He needs a big second half.

But an even .500 record at this point of the season, with this roster and all the mitigating circumstances?

I'd say he's done a decent job.

Maybe even better than that.

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