The Pittsburgh Pirates are building an interesting coaching staff ahead of manager Don Kelly's first full season in 2026.

Though the Pirates have not made any official announcements, they reportedly have reached agreements to hire Bill Murphy as pitching coach, Kristopher Negron as bench coach, and Tony Beasley as third base coach.

Murphy spent the past five seasons with the Houston Astros and established a reputation as one of the best young pitching coaches in baseball. He has already gained the seal of approval from Pirates ace Paul Skenes.

Skenes spoke highly of Miller this past week after winning the National League Cy Young Award unanimously. Skenes said he had a chance to talk to Miller before his hiring and that the 36-year-old had job offers from other teams.

Miller inherits a pitching staff that was seventh in MLB in ERA. Skenes is just 23 and was joined in the starting rotation at the end of the season by three rookies in Bubba Chandler, Braxton Ashcraft, and Mike Burrows.

"He chose to come to Pittsburgh, and he could have gone elsewhere," Skenes said. "So that's really exciting for me. Obviously, he wouldn't have gotten the job if our organization leaders didn't think he was extremely sharp and very good at what he does. Everything I've heard is that he's really sharp and good at getting pitchers better. The work speaks for itself. Houston's been one of the best staffs in the league for as long as he's been there. So, it's really exciting.

"Selfishly, I'm excited because he's going to help me get better. But with the young staff that we have, we've been craving coaching, we've been craving people to challenge us, whether the guys know it or not, and Bill's going to do that. So, I'm very excited."

Negron has been on the rise in the coaching ranks since his major league playing career ended in 2019, after six seasons and 170 games as a utility player with four teams. Negron joined the Seattle Mariners in 2020 as an assistant in player development, then managed their Triple-A Tacoma farm club the following season before a four-year stint as a base coach on the major-league staff. The Mariners came within one win of reaching the World Series this past season, losing to the Toronto Blue Jays in seven games in the American League Championship Series.

Kelly served as the Pirates' bench coach for five-plus seasons under Derek Shelton. Kelly was promoted to manager on May 9 this year, when Shelton was fired. Special consultant Gene Lamont served as Kelly's de facto bench coach for the remainder of the season.

Beasley has long-standing ties to the Pirates and extensive MLB experience as a third base coach, holding the job for 15 seasons, including one with the Washington Nationals (2006), three with the Pirates (2008-10), and 11 with the Texas Rangers (2015-25). Beasley was also the Rangers' interim manager for the final 48 games of the 2022 season following the firing of Chris Woodward.

The affable and popular Beasley was an infielder in the Pirates' farm system for seven seasons from 1992-98. He became a player-coach in 1998 at Double-A Carolina and spent 10 seasons in the organization as a minor league manager, coach, and instructor.