The Pirates made some more moves in the dugout on Friday morning, announcing that Chris Truby and Gene Lamont have joined new manager Don Kelly’s staff. 

According to the team, Truby will serve as a coach, and he began the year with Triple-A Indianapolis as manager as well as the organization’s minor-league infield coordinator, a position he held for four years. Truby will work with the team’s infielders in Pittsburgh. 

He spent four seasons as a player in the MLB, playing with the Houston Astros, Montreal Expos, Detroit Tigers, and Tampa Bay Rays between 2000 and 2003. 

Lamont has been named as a special advisor to Kelly, and it will be his third stint with the club. Lamont was the Pirates’ manager from 1997-2000 and a coach in 1996. He was also a coach for the Pirates from 1986 to 1991. 

Along with his experience with the Pirates, he was a coach with Detroit from 2006 until 2017 under managers Jim Leyland and Brad Ausmus. 

Truby will join the club in Philadelphia today and Lamont will join the team at the beginning of next week’s homestand. 

The team also announced that Mike Rabelo will continue to serve as the third-base coach but will also expand his role on the bench to include game planning and strategy. 

Meanwhile, Shawn Bowman, who was the assistant director of Triple-A Indianapolis to being the season, will now take over as the team’s manager. 

The announcement comes about a week after the Pirates announced they had relieved manager Derek Shelton of his duties. 

One of the two people accused of vandalizing Jewish buildings in Pittsburgh has pleaded guilty.

In federal court on Thursday, Tayla Lubit confessed to spray painting hate on July 29, 2024, with her alleged co-conspirator Mohamad Hamad. 

The two were indicted in November last year for allegedly putting antisemitic symbols on Chabad of Squirrel Hill’s synagogue and the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s office building

Initially, Lubit pleaded not guilty, but on Thursday, that changed. The 24-year-old entered into a plea agreement with the government and admitted to vandalizing the religious buildings.

Federal prosecutors say Lubit and her co-conspirator were acting on their hatred of Jewish people, which stemmed from the Hamas-Israel war.

Lubit and Hamad, as well as a third person, are also accused of conspiring to make and set off homemade explosives.

Shawn Brokos, director of community security with the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, was at the court hearing on Thursday.

She said they are pleased with the outcome.

“Initially, this was described as a graffiti case,” Brokos said. “But often what we’ve seen in the Jewish community is that when you scratch below the surface, you will see that hatred directed at the Jews or those in support of Israel, and that bears out today with the facts we saw presented during the plea agreement.”