The Pirates are poised to promote right-hander Thomas Harrington to the majors for today’s start against the Rays in Tampa, according to a report from Noah Hiles of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Harrington is not yet on the 40-man roster, so the club will need to make a corresponding move to open up a spot for Harrington before he can officially be selected.
Harrington, 23, was a first-round pick by the Pirates in the 2022 draft. He was the 36th selection in the draft, the Pirates’ second pick after infielder Termarr Johnson went number four overall. After he posted an impressive 2.53 ERA and 30% strikeout rate in 15 starts for Campbell during his draft year, the Pirates held off on putting Harrington in pro games until 2023. He more or less picked up right where he left off despite the layoff with a 2.77 ERA and 26.7% strikeout rate in eight starts at the Single-A level. That got him a quick promotion to High-A, where he faced a bit more adversity but still managed a solid 3.87 ERA in 127 1/3 innings across 18 starts while punching out 28.2% of his opponents.
The right-hander built on that solid first season as a pro with a dominant one in 2024. Though a rotator cuff injury cost him some of his 2024 campaign, Harrington made the most of his opportunities when he was healthy enough to take the mound, with an incredible 2.24 ERA and a 27.4% strikeout rate in 68 1/3 innings of work at the Double-A level. That earned him a promotion to Triple-A, where his strikeout rate dropped to just 21.2% but he nonetheless managed to post a solid 3.33 ERA across eight starts. Harrington’s breakout performance last season and success at the highest level of the minors put him on the radar for a big league debut this year, and he’s now set to get that opportunity later today.
The righty’s strong performance in 2024 was also enough to make him a consensus top-100 prospect, rated as the #74 prospect in the sport by Baseball America and #79 by MLB Pipeline at the outset of the 2025 season. He’s since moved up a spot on both lists following the graduation of Nationals outfielder Dylan Crews yesterday. Harrington features a deep pitch mix headlined by a fastball that tops out at 95mph and an above-average slider, though he also features a cutter and curveball, both of which grade out as roughly average. The main selling point of Harrington’s overall package is pinpoint control, however; he walked just eight batters in 46 innings at Triple-A last year and has a tidy 6.1% walk rate across all levels of the minors.
When Jared Jones went on the injured list to open the season, Harrington was in the mix for the fifth starter job with the Pirates but ultimately lost out to right-hander Carmen Mlodzinski, a former first-round pick in his own right with a 2.91 ERA in 86 1/3 career innings at the big league level entering the 2025 season. With that being said, it still did not take long for Harrington’s call to the big leagues to occur. It’s unclear whether today’s appearance will strictly be a spot start for the youngster or a more significant opportunity, though it should be noted that Mlodzinski surrendered four runs on seven hits and two walks in 3 2/3 innings of work during his first start of the season last night.
That’s the sort of performance that could, at least in theory, open the door for Harrington to claim a rotation spot with a dominant outing. As a consensus top-100 prospect called up in the early days of the season, Harrington would be eligible to earn the Pirates a prospect promotion incentive draft pick if he sticks on the active roster for the rest of the 2025 campaign. Harrington would need to win the NL Rookie of the Year award or finish in the top three of NL Cy Young award (or MVP) voting during his pre-arbitration years in order to bring back a PPI pick for Pittsburgh.
Rotation depth is perhaps the biggest strength of the Pirates’ roster. An on-paper starting five of Paul Skenes, Jones, Mitch Keller, Andrew Heaney, and Bailey Falter is already one of the most solid rotations in the National League, and the presence of youngsters like Harrington, Mlodzinski, Braxton Ashcraft, and star pitching prospect Bubba Chandler serve to lengthen out the club’s depth chart significantly. That rotation depth is robust enough that the Pirates felt comfortable trading a controllable young arm in Luis Ortiz even after a season where he posted a 3.32 ERA in 137 2/3 innings of work. That trade netted the Pirates a comparably controllable young hitter in Spencer Horwitz, who opened the season on the injured list due to wrist surgery but figures to settle in as the club’s everyday first baseman once healthy.
Wrong link.
there’s a lot of links.
Nice
Alright! Bring up Chandler, Ashcraft, maybe a Nick Yorke…Baby you got a Stew Going!
I only used smoked Nick Yorke. I don’t even know why they sell regular.
RIP Carl Weathers
Of course the offense is horrible but let’s promote a pitcher and trade for an outfielder who strikes out with regularity and will fit right in with the other players
How would you fix offense?
Move the team to LA and change the name to the Dodgers 😀
Man, the future is bright for the Pirates’ rotation. What a collection of talented arms.
The future is bright… until they realize they can’t afford them and trade them all to the Yankees or Dodgers for middling returns.
It is until it isn’t. Look at Miami.
Jones already injured twice. Harrington doesn’t look to have mlb quality stuff. Chandler should be a beast but they need to stay healthy. Easier said than done.
Thomas Harrington sounds more like a guy that should be getting ready to fight the Redcoats instead of playing baseball in 2025. Great “old school” name.
justin Henry Mallory
I spelled his name wrong :facepalm:
Why?
Because you should never trust a grown man with a hyphenated name. If he cannot pick a last name and go with it, then how can you trust him to make any other decision?
Grown men almost never pick their own names.
I dislike hyphenated names, but it’s their parents’ fault.
Once you are grown, you can easily drop one name. That is why I emphasized GROWN men. Kids don’t have a choice, but grown ups can drop the excess for about $25. That would be worth it just in the time saved signing your name.
I wish him luck but not overly optimistic. Doesn’t seem to have the velocity to be dominant. Pirates really, really need a spark to wake them up.
Why does he have to be dominat? No one is expecting him to be.
Well hopefully he’ll be a long term piece of the rotation. I do believe this is a spot start. I didn’t see for sure but I’d imagine they did it to get Skenes to pitch the home opener and start Keller tomorrow.
Not sure why, I just get Quinn Priester and Nick Kingham vibes from him.
And sadly, with the bullpen so far, we need the starters to be amazing to have a chance.
Hole- You may be right about the spot start.Hopefully he is decent enough.
Harrington is probably not ready yet but does have some promise.
But if he is then Carmen should definitely move to the pen as they need his innings there.
I hope that Nicolas gets it together in AAA so that he can be a candidate to close by mid season.
I’d like to see him and Stratton back. Both pretty good power arms.
Yeah Carmen is not a starter imo but still early in the process. Gonna need a long reliever or two to eat up some innings. Probably vs the Yankees as well with how they’re hitting.
Those two will be back very soon.
In the interim,this is the time that they need Van Meter or Telez to mop up games.
Van Meter is retired and Telez retired last year.
It is good for the game if skenes goes to my the yanks. Pirates have a max 86 win team in 2026/27 until he leaves
Skenes to Mets Dodgers. Yankees 3rd option for premier free agents at best.
Good luck harrington! Must be an exciting nervous day! Could be almost as good as skenes/jared if he reaches full potential
Extremely unlikely. Jared isn’t close to Skenes either.
Harrington finally got the venue he wanted. Hope Maude & Knox will be in attendance.
They must hate Bubba.
The drafted a catcher who can’t catch at #1 overall to get Bubba so they freaking love Bubba.
This was the right decision (either him or Chandler) for the Pirates to make. Hope he sticks around though. I don’t want him here for just one start then get shuttled back to Triple-A.
Well, Harrington is cheap so he’ll fit right in. If Nutting stacked the $69 million he made in profit last year on the mound in $1 bills, how tall would it be?
Lazy garbage report on 69 million. Anyone still reading those sources after that joke of a article is stupid.
Not sure if you heard about a report where the Pirates lost money last year, not sure how. Seen a video with DK and former Pirates discussing it. Basically Nutting is crying poor and praying for a cap.
This is a blueprint for turning excess pitching talent into draft capital. The Ortiz-for-Horwitz trade already shows they’re willing to flip arms for positional upgrades, and Harrington’s promotion could be the first step in a systematic approach to exploit MLB’s incentive structure. But logically, it’s a move that could net Pittsburgh an extra top-40 pick by 2026 without sacrificing their 2025 win total.
man that was a rough debut. of course you give him some leeway given his first game.. but man.