Pirates fans received some ominous news today when John Perrotto of Pittsburgh Baseball Now reported that right-hander Jared Jones was “likely” to undergo Tommy John surgery. Alex Stumpf of MLB.com expanded on that report shortly thereafter, emphasizing that nothing has been decided yet regarding Jones’s status. With that being said, Stumpf did report that Jones is poised to meet with orthopedic surgeon (and Rangers head physician) Dr. Keith Meister on Tuesday and that surgery is “an option” for the righty, who was shut down near the end of Spring Training due to elbow soreness that eventually turned out to be a UCL sprain.
Jones was shut down for six weeks following that diagnosis, and (as noted by Stumpf) began playing catch at the tail end of April. Updates on Jones’s status have been sparse since then, but this latest update is not exactly an encouraging one. While it’s not yet clear if Jones will end up going under the knife, surgery after this attempt to rehab his elbow would still cost him his entire 2025 season, but could put his 2026 campaign in jeopardy as well. That’s a frustrating outcome for any pitcher, but particularly a 23-year-old who made his big league debut just last season an enjoyed a solid rookie campaign where he posted a 4.22 ERA and 4.01 FIP across 22 starts.
It may be quite some time before he’s able to attempt to build on that performance at this point. Losing Jones for that extended length of time would be crushing for a Pirates club that has struggled to a 15-32 record to this point in the season and is built around the strength of its young starting pitchers including Jones, 2024 NL Rookie of the Year Paul Skenes, and top prospect Bubba Chandler. That trio when paired with Mitch Keller and Andrew Heaney would make for one of the most fearsome on-paper rotations in the sport, but Chandler has yet to make his big league debut while Jones has been sidelined by injury all season.
Those dents in the armor that is the club’s rotation have only served to further exacerbate the issues brought on by a deeply flawed bullpen and lackluster offense. It’s already arguably cost the Pirates whatever shot they had at making a postseason run this year, but the loss of Jones for most or all of 2026 would risk casting a grim note over next season’s team as well without a significant turnaround going forward or a more robust financial outlay this winter than ownership has shown itself to be comfortable offering.
Of course, a meeting with a surgeon is not necessarily the same thing as being ticketed to undergo surgery itself. Gerrit Cole famously held a meeting with noted surgeon Dr. Neal ElAttrache last spring, but needed only to rehab his ailing elbow in the short-term and was able to return in the second half last year for the Yankees, though he did eventually end up requiring surgery during camp this past spring. Whether Jones ultimately ends up undergoing surgery or not at this time, it seems likely at the very least that his rehab progress will be slowed or perhaps even halted entirely. That would leave the Pirates without the talented young righty for even more of the 2025 campaign.
To this point, Bailey Falter (4.02 ERA) and Carmen Mlodzinski (5.67 ERA) have been relied upon to fill out the Pirates rotation behind Skenes, Keller, and Heaney. Chandler’s eventual promotion should create additional depth, however, and other options like Braxton Ashcraft and Thomas Harrington remain available in the minors who are already on the 40-man roster in case of further rotation injuries.
Just bite the bullet and get it done. Just an unfortunate situation for the guy.
And call up Bubba Chandler. What are they waiting for?
Super two? Not being possible to win ROY? Who knows with these clowns. Obviously a home game to make a few more bucks.
I’m sure Nutting is forcing him to stay down in AAA.. especially after MLBPA gave Skenes a full year of service in 2024
God hates us.
I doubt that, but your owner does.
Whoever designed the human body didn’t build it to throw a baseball without breaking. If a lil weak man decides he wants to pitch that’s on him.
PNC Park deserves a better team
Correction
The taxpayers who financed the construction of PNC Park deserves a competitive team every year
Could any team in baseball make the Pirates a reasonable offer for Skenes?
Reasonable won’t be close enough. Has to be more than overwhelming and that’s still probably not enough.
If the Pirates can’t win with him and they refuse to spend money then they might as well trade him.
Anthony, Mayer, Campbell and Dobbins. I think thats getting close at least. Anthony is the best prospect in baseball.
King. Of. Cards;
Remember what Branch Rickey said to Ralph Kiner when he wanted to cut his salary after Kiner led the league in HR’s with the Pirates in 1952 after the team finished with a 42-112 record (and the fans stopped showing up):
“We finished last with you, we can finish last without you.”
Of course, those days are gone. It’s all about entertainment now.
Skenes sells tickets. Empty most days, but when Skenes is on the hill, it’s somewhat full.
Yeah, it’s too bad the players are actually getting paid what they’re worth today and aren’t subject to having their salaries cut by stingy GMs. Marvin Miller put an end to all that. It was too late for Ralph Kiner’s generation though.
Sox would never do that.
I used that quote all weekend! As a lifelong Pirates fan, I am all for trading Skenes and Cruz right now…
MLB needs to find owners that are at least willing to spend the money to retain the talent that they already have. It sucks that teams are trading their young talent to other teams for prospects, who in best case scenario, put the team right back in the same situation.
Thats not the best case scenario. The best case scenario is they have tons of prospects all ready to play at the same time and instead of being maybe a 500 team they have a chance to actually compete. Thats why I suggested it.
Unfortunately, that is not a scenario, but a dream. Having 26 players all on similar timelines so that they are performing all during the Pre-Arb years is not realistic. Teams like the Rays and Braves were able to extend their window by successfully signing their young players to extensions (ie: Evan Longoria, Carl Crawford, RAJ, Ozzie Albie etc..). If the Pirates owner is not willing to spend the money, then prospects like Skenes, Jones, and Chandler are nothing but trade bait developed by the Pirates..
The package they could get for Skenes could be insane. Might as well try. Because what they are currently doing isnt working.
I always found Ralph Kiner to be entertaining. Along with Bob Murphy and Lindsey Nelson’s sport coats.
I have zero optimism in Cherington making a good trade, let alone the best young pitcher, and then having enough hope they can actually develop said bats they acquire in a trade? Nope.
Any team with 4 top 50 prospects with at least one top 15 could get it done. That’s a hard price to pay. And Pittsburgh could easily still get at least 2 with 2 years remaining.
Given the train wreck of last off season and this pathetic, punchless season so far, I have no idea why anyone here is deemed “untouchable”
No idea at all
AI, you’ve said the rebuild is over but after watching this lifeless team, it’s clear their GM needs to go because let’s face it, this owner is going nowhere.
Clean house from top to bottom
Burn it all down and rebuild it again
Maybe Jones will be their anchor in ‘27
Probably talking double what Juan Soto got back. Whatever that is.
Crochet had 2 year left. Skenes 4 and half. It was fair return so figure Skenes worth 2.5 to 3 times as much. Hard to see many teams wanting to pay that. Hard to see Pirates interested in trading him. It’s just a fantasy thing people will talk about for attention.
Rebuilds been over since end of 2022. It wasn’t a meta build. Wasn’t even good. Heck average is pushing it. But it was over.
No reason for another rebuild. There’s enough here to put together a mid 80s high 80s team.
Fans are going to think it’s a rebuild when everyone nearing free agency is traded in July but that’s just doing business.
A rebuild would be trading Skenes Cruz. Anyone else can be easily replaced. Maybe probably not by Cherington but a real gm.
Cherington needed fired October 2024. He was bad then for failing to develop bats and keeping Shelton so long. Signing Pham was another blunder.
@Former If they re gonna rebuild and do so with regard to Jones years of team control, why would they trade Skenes? Both Jones and Skenes are under team control til 2030.
Only a matter of time.
Best they do it before he needs TJ.
Five top 100 prospects and a new owner would be a good start
Don’t understand why they have waited 4 months!!? Clocks ticking Ben!! You better make a move,grow a set!
Having surgery isn’t fun
I wonder if they are going with Meister cause they are too cheap to foot the bill for ElAttrache?
Meister is just as renowned as elAttrache. Meister was mentored by Dr James Andrews. I doubt that’s the cost is significantly different where it would even be considered. That’s if there is not some type of coverage for the procedure. Considering both of the surgeons are team doctors for MLB teams, I’d assume they have some type of deal with MLB and MLBPA.
Been a MLB fan since 1981. By far, the most frustrating thing about today’s game is pitchers blowing out their arms.
Pitchers want to be the best, get recruited, get drafted, get paid etc etc.
Game was just as entertaining maybe even more so without everyone throwing hard.
That’s also because of a number of reasons.
Way too much emphasis on the three outcomes,strikeout,walk,home run.
Way too much emphasis on speed and break thereby shortening pitcher careers.I think that much of the arm damage has started previous to professional baseball.
Very little strategy as far as hit and running and when to take the pitcher out when they were also hitters.
Not much use for pinch hitters any more.
Few can actually bunt.
Too many changes to young hitters launch angle.Not enough balls in play.
It was a much different game years ago.
MLB economics is most frustrating thing in today’s game imo
Throw hard = blow out your elbow. Not sure why that concept is so hard for teams to understand.
Throw soft = find another career. Always the next hard thrower waiting in the wings to throw hard risk an elbow blowout to make the big bucks. Pitchers going on the shelf for a year or more is the cost of doing business and there’s plenty of money owners have to go around.
I think that the excessive spin on breaking balls does not help either.
They throw too much. Too hard often and early. It’s so competitive. But the elite elite kids don’t need to over do it.
No offense Nick, as you are just the latest in an endless line to assert it – but what about a healthy Pirates rotation would make it “one of the most fearsome in the sport”?
Jared Jones had a hot start last year, tailed off, and if healthy would be a good young arm. Mitch Keller clearly would be nothing more than a 4th starter in a contending rotation. Andrew Heaney was on the scrap heap, Bubba Chandler has never thrown a pitch in the major leagues.
This rotation is Paul Skenes and a pile of standard-issue mediocrity, and that’s plain as day. And, of course, zero depth. That’s hardly “fearsome”.
Skenes is perhaps the best pitcher in baseball. Chandler is the number 2 overall prospect in baseball. I agree Jones is overrated but thats a 1 2 punch that could be the best in baseball by 2026
Heaney was on scrap heap because other teams are just plain dumb. He will be traded to a contender just like every year the Pirates trade their old scrap heap lefty. Probably to the Padres.
What contenders have 3 healthy starters better than Keller? And how many contenders do you count?
Bubba looks as good as a prospect not named Skenes Strasburg Cole can look.
Skenes, Jones, Keller, Bubba and some combo of Oviedo or Falter would have been a great starting staff
But the word “fearsome” no longer applies in the era of 5-6 inning/100 pitch starts
Even this staff on a team that is punchless and without a strong bullpen amounts to “not much”
If you didn’t see this coming, you’re just not paying attention. The sad thing is, there will be a lockout after the ‘26 season. Who knows when this guy will pitch again.
There won’t be a lockout. Quit obsessing over that.
There are fans hoping for a lockout/strike so that a hard salary cap/floor can be implemented which isn’t going to happen.
No, there won’t be a hard cap or floor implemented, but the millionaires and billionaires won’t be proactive enough to avoid a lockout. Guaranteed one is coming.
Bob Nutting says he can save baseball.
In another month or so the Steelers will announce training camp opening day.
Refresh Steelers.com for updates.
Samuel- The Steelers aren’t going anywhere either.
They do not even know who their starting quarterback is and they should ask the Jets about it.
Not to mention the Penguins finished tied for 24th this season.
It’s a bad time for sports in the steel city…
maybe there’s a good movie on somewhere?
It’s like all the ownership in Pittsburgh have a case of “don’t give a crap-itis”. Content with living in the past and putting together half built rosters instead of starting over or in the Pirates case, actually building on a young core.
This story is one that many Pirate fans knew already.
This year just keeps getting worse and worse.
Before the season began, I’d have give. 38-36 months before Skenes’ camp requested a trade.
Now I give it 15-18 months
They can request all they want but Skenes is not going to sit out a season.
Then he’s Jesus reincarnated because I’d be p*$$** off after yesterday’s loss
Oh no. We suck again!
See you in 2027 Jared
The bigger story is “who will Skenes be traded to?”
Needs to be Boston. They have the young players who just made it to the majors and others who are ready. No teenagers in this deal, only young players ready to contribute NOW! Needs to be Abreau, Dobbins and Campbell from the major league roster, and Anthony, Mayer, Parales and Early from the minors. This would be the biggest trade in MLB history. Needs to be overly lopsided to consider.
If you need ‘overly lopsided’, then you aren’t trading him. No pitcher in history is worth that much.
Especially when every pitcher’s arm eventually falls off.
A rebuild only takes you so far. Even a team with a good core still needs money.
That said, this rebuild isn’t all it is cracked up to be. Given that Skenes was the automatic 1/1, the rest of the draft picks were oeverall weak, considering how high the Pirates have picked (#10, 18, 7, 1, 4, 1, 9).
I don’t think BC is the guy.
That said, please, please do something with Davis. This is the worst development job I’ve seen since Adell. It looks like they promoted him to be a weak-side platoon player. They’re in 28th place. Play him every game.. Or trade him. He’s had 13 starts in 32 possible games.
I know how much you love to support owners, but do you know who the Pirates owner is?
BC has never been the guy. Going into his 6th season as GM and every year has been worse than the previous season
Two 100 loss seasons, a failed at player development, other than Skenes, which was a no brainer, his position player drafts ( Henry Davis) has a failures
He’s made a few good trades but his free agent signing’s have been poor
I don’t want to read that he’s worked with a low budget, Huntington was too and he managed to make the Bucs competitive for a few years
I think that Cherington is someone who seems like a director of baseball operations like Dombrowski but he really is just a good GM as long as he has a good baseball person over him.
He has been in a vacuum with the Pirates and in my opinion Nutting’s biggest weakness as an owner is that he does not monitor the state of the team close enough.
This manifests itself in keeping a manager way past his time and not spending more when necessary.No one expected $100M payrolls when they were bad but the lack last year has contributed to them being bad now.
First draft choices have actually been better than Huntington’s but the lack of development and questionable decisions have added to failures.
I think that Ben is a good baseball man and a good guy but in Leo Durocher’s famous words “ good guys finish last”.
Checking in on Ben watch!I here 48 hrs till he’s fired if no deals are made! Teams are ready to swap now!
Possibly the #1 rule in sports is never to have a dead-man-walking make trades. They will trade or draft with no regard to future benefits.
I agree with JoeBrady. BC track record on trades is not great, his track record on player development is worse. We all hope he is on the hot seat. Do I want him making trades in a desperate attempt to save his job? No. The one thing I think we all can agree on is the Pirates suck this year. In my opinion, no single trade is going to make them competitive this year . We all might also agree that BC has failed. Why would you want him to continue to shape the future by making trades in desperation? Hopefully, BC is gone before the deadline as there are a few one year contracts that may be unloaded for some positive return and I would prefer someone else handle those trades.
I see BC gone before the deadline.
Nutting hasn’t been pleased with the direction of this team for awhile which got Shelton fired
If the losing continues I can see him gone in another month or less
especially if Endy and Nick don’t improve the offense
Cherington is many things but he is loyal to the Pirates.
He would do his best no matter what his status is or will be.
He can see the writing on the wall but there is no one else in the organization who could make trades and the one year contract players would need to be traded.
His biggest problem in trading has been getting young players and thinking that he can develop them.
He needs to trade for major league ready talent not prospects that his player development team can destroy
Without Cruz in the lineup for tonight’s game, there should be 4 fewer strikeouts for the team but playing Pham isn’t exactly a great idea considering he strikes out as often as Cruz
Will they score a run or perhaps 5 tonight?
Keller has the misfortune of starting again tonight
What “Big Bat” should replace Triolo?
Bring Pegurro back up
He can’t be any worse than Triolo
hey, at least they scored a run for Keller
Hayes has struck out in both of his plate appearances too
Swinging at pitches nowhere close to the plate
Must be a lead off thing
Must be his bad back again
it’s now 7ks in 4 innings
It will be another double digits for this worthless organization
I rarely agree with Paul Zeise in the PG, in a sports or political sense. But today, he’s right. Burn it all down and start over. Trade literally everyone who’ll bring back quality young players
But by all means, clean house first. Start with Williams and Cherington and work down
This team is literally worse than the John Russell years. That’s almost unbelievable.
I must say I admire all of you for still having the energy to get angry. The Pirates are so pathetic this year, I long ago spent my anger quota for the year. Now, I just shake my head and a few innings, I just call the dog and we head to the forest. Out there, unlike the Pirates, the pronghorn, deer and elk show some life.
Very well said. I’m sorry if I project anger. It’s more resigned disbelief. If you wanted to run a franchise into the ground, this is the blueprint. Like you, I’ve found much more important and rewarding things to do and be concerned with
Thanks. Completely agree
The problem with that is that is what they did 5 1/2 years ago.
Why did Nutting wait 2 1/2 years when it was evident that this regime was going nowhere.
You were right,this is another 100 loss season.Their apex was not one but two 76 win seasons.
I think that even the White Sox may pass the Pirates this year.
But all note.
We are still better than the Rockies.
I do feel for their fans but unlike Pittsburgh they still come out in droves to watch an awful team.
Well you’ve said it a thousand times. Nutting isn’t a baseball guy. Dream has said he’s a financial Hall of Famer. We agreed some time ago that someone like Leyland would have been a good GM. Heck, even Hurdle
But again, the rebuild may be over but do you try to support a house with real foundation problems or tear it down and start over? I choose the latter
I agree again with Skeptical here and just shake my head more so over the lack of fire, lack of hustle and aloof manner most of the young guys carry. And that’s on top of lack of talent and knowledge of fundamentals
As Zeise said in the column, they should hope Reynolds catches fire, that Bednar finds all the parts and trade them along with all existing “stars”. Build around the young pitchers on the farm, around Griffin and Termar
But get rid of the front office, player personnel and scouts first
Except first, BC needs to go.
We need a better GM for trading players away for the future of this franchise
Theman will be shocked, but on this point I am in complete agreement with him.
I know that you are correct but Skeptical and you are also both right- at this point who really cares?
If the Pirates have lost the will to win much of it has to do with continually losing.
My point is that many of us saw this coming years ago.Bur Nurting evidently did not.
I just check the final score and that is about it.
It is really not worth getting excited about anymore.
I was out to dinner with a friend last night and didn’t watch most of the game, but when Kelly decided to use Bednar in the 9th in a one run save opportunity for I turned the channel.
I couldn’t watch the potential loss with Bednar at the helm
They are now 3-7 since Kelly was named interim manager.
Cherington said at the time of Shelton’s departure that he was responsible to how bad this team was playing. So my question is simple
How long until Nutting accepts the fact that Cherington should be held accountable for the failures of the current pathetic offense?
Bednar and Holderman should be traded, Pham should be DFA, when Gonzalez returns, Frazier should be DFA and Bae and Peguero promoted. Solak should be DFA
Play the younger guys, and see what they can do
They can’t be any worse
Problem is, Bednar and Holderman no longer have a market. You have to hope they find some consistent success and then pull the trigger
I have to wonder about the dynamics between Nutting and his front office. Is all of this due to his constraints or general incompetence on Cherington’s part? Or a combination?
In any case, nothing is going to change until the front office is relieved of their duties. And with the draft ahead, that’s just not gonna happen soon
But a new GM needs to burn it all down. Put everyone in the big league team in the trading block.
Paul-Bednar and Holderman need to be sent to AAA.
Bae and Peguero should be brought up after the All Star break and played a lot to finally figure out what they can do.
Pham and Frazier will not be released until after the trading deadline if then.
Cherington will be gone at the end of this year but this year can be used as a laboratory to find out further whether their young players can play in the ML’s.That was supposed to be 2020,21,and 22.
One can blame the development system and the manager but at a certain point these young guys have to show that they deserve to be in the ML’s.
we have players that aren’t youngsters who don’t belong in the majors
For how good Triolo is with his defense, he stinks offensively
Pham certainly doesn’t deserve to be on the roster but he’s being paid too much to be dfa.
Hayes is another example of great defense but little offense
Every player can’t always be in an offensive slump, maybe it’s the hitting coach and his staff that is the problem
Bednar and Holderman gave up 6 runs but the failure of this offense can’t even make the game interesting or close
It’s like they give up on trying to win when they fall behind
Endy hit a 3 run homer in last night’s game with Indy and so far, Gonzalez is 0-6 with 3 strikeouts with Indy in their rehabilitation games
In the olden days there were hitters who, when successful, we’d say the pitcher “hit his bat for him”. Endy reminds me of that kind of hitter. Hard to imagine him hitting many homers unless a pitch is grooved
Endy has to prove that he is a ML player in the same manner that Davis has to prove it.It is a joke thinking that he can play first base unless he becomes a way better hitter with power,and that is not going to happen.
I have said it before, Endy needs to prove he can hit ML pitching because so far he’s failed to do so.
Being successful in the minors doesn’t always translate into success in the majors
Paul- They could send both pitchers to AAA and bring up Moreta and Burrows.
in a perfect world, Wentz would be dfa, Moretta promoted, Carmen sent to the bullpen and Chandler promoted and become a starter
That all should be happening soon.