The Pittsburgh Pirates keep Stephen Morales busy.
As an assistant coach and club interpreter on Pirates manager Derek Shelton’s staff, on any given morning during spring training and throughout the 162-regular season, Morales appears to be quick on his feet. He has to be. Should, for instance, the media ask to speak with shortstop Oneil Cruz or any other Spanish-speaking players who don’t speak English fluently, Morales’s translating services are called for.
There is a bond created between Morales and those players from the Caribbean, Mexico, and Central America, and trust is quickly gained between them.
Advancing their baseball careers is challenging. Having difficulties communicating with coaches on what expectations are shouldn’t be a hindrance for players.
MLB and the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) recognized these potential roadblocks for the players. Since 2016, officially, all Spanish-speaking players are to have a familiar voice to assist them in assimilating into the baseball community.
MLB requires each club to recruit Spanish-to-English interpreters. In the past, coaches and managers who had some level of communication with the players were “unofficial” liaisons. However, to prevent any unflattering things from being said to reporters because of errors with interpreting, and to make sure players can fully grasp team signs on the base paths, corrective action was put in place.
Interpreters are compensated by MLB clubs as full-time employees. They are paid with funds collected from penalties that clubs incur for exceeding their international signing pool. MLB also provides $65,000 to each team to help offset the interpreter costs.
This all happened thanks to former MLB All-Star Carlos Beltran taking his concerns to MLBPA Executive Director Tony Clark’s attention. From Beltran’s request came an agreement that all clubs were required to have bilingual assistance for players in need.
What makes Morales’s value even greater to the Pirates as an interpreter is his decades-long experience as a player, coach, and manager. He has been in the minor leagues as well as in Winter League baseball in Puerto Rico, his birthplace.
“I played for 16 years and have been coaching for 13 years,” Morales told The Epoch Times shortly before the Pirates were scheduled to play the Detroit Tigers in an exhibition game in Bradenton, Florida. “Anything that I can do to help the coaching staff and the organization—throw batting practice, position players during the game, and offer information to our [Pirates] international department on the Latin players—they can count on me.”
Allowing Latin players to have as smooth a physical and mental transition from their native countries as possible, so their minds can better focus on baseball, is something Morales takes personally. He remembers being drafted back in 1996 by the then Florida Marlins in the 23rd round as an 18-year-old. He left the security of his Spanish-speaking community in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico for rookie ball in Florida and then Class-A ball’s Utica (N.Y.) Blue Sox.
He understood English but was not proficient. He recalls walking great distances from where the Blue Sox were housed to the ballpark, and being the only player in his Spanish-speaking group who possessed a valid driver’s license. They pooled their money to buy a used car, and the long walks to Murnane Field came to an end.
Entering the 2025 season, his third on Shelton’s staff, Morales seems well received by all players in the Pirates’ black and gold colors. Morales is a former catcher, and it’s his international baseball experience that holds many of his Spanish-speaking players’ attention.
Winter League baseball in Puerto Rico, for Morales, is the Mayaguez Indians. Now a coach for the club, after giving himself a two-week respite once Pittsburgh’s season comes to an end, Morales is right back at what he loves—teaching baseball.
For all connected with the Indians, earning their way into the Caribbean Series is the end goal. Right after the Caribbean Series, Morales takes his baseball “thinking cap” stateside, to Pirate City in Bradenton, Florida.
“I’m careful what I say when relaying messages from players,” Morales said of his interpreting services. “Sometimes they say very sensitive things, and I want to get it right.”
The invitation to join the Pirates’ MLB coaching staff wasn’t gifted to Morales. After managing Pittsburgh’s Florida Coast League club for 41 games in 2021, working with the coaching staff at Double-A Altoona in 2022, and all of his international baseball educating seasons, Morales was the right person at the right time to fill the Pirates’ need.
In 2024, on MLB Opening Day rosters, there were 100-plus players from the Dominican Republic, 60-plus from Venezuela, and nearly 20 from Puerto Rico. A majority of these players could use the interpreter services offered by Morales during pitching changes, when discussing any physical ailments with trainers, or when substitutions were needed. Morales is within eye contact of Shelton on the Pirates’ bench when needed.
Morales is a master communicator as well as a serious baseball strategist. He is part of MLB’s present and future, and he appreciates the opportunity he’s earned to work with the Pirates.
Morales’s passion for the game is that of a warrior, both as a player and now as a coach. Seeing the late, great National Baseball Hall of Famer Roberto Clemente as a role model, Morales, too, wants to give back to his home communities of Mayaguez and Pittsburgh. Doors have been opened for him, and now he’s working on doing the same for the many Spanish-speaking players he talks for and teaches.
