Pirates Finalize Pitching Staff
The Pirates finalized their Opening Day pitching decisions, with Jason Mackey of MLB.com covering the notable details. Carmen Mlodzinski will get a rotation spot while José Urquidy and Hunter Barco will start the season in the bullpen and Mike Clevinger will head to Triple-A. Alex Stumpf reports that Clevinger had an upward mobility clause in his minor league deal but it appears that didn’t lead to a roster spot with any of the 30 clubs in the league.
The Bucs went into the winter with loads of pitching and used that to bolster their position player group. They included Mike Burrows in the three-team trade that netted them Brandon Lowe and Jake Mangum, as well as reliever Mason Montgomery. They flipped Johan Oviedo to the Red Sox in a five-player trade, with the headliner for the Bucs being outfielder Jhostynxon García. They still have a strong front four consisting of Paul Skenes, Mitch Keller, Bubba Chandler and Braxton Ashcraft. By the end of camp, Mlodzinski, Urquidy, Barco and Clevinger appeared to be battling for the final spot.
Mlodzinski enters the season with a 3.25 earned run average in 185 2/3 innings as a swingman. He has struck out 21.7% of batters faced while giving out walks at an 8.2% clip, both fairly average marks. His 47.1% ground ball rate is a few ticks north of par.
There seems to be some belief he could find a new gear. Mlodzinski tells Mackey that he’s feeling much better now compared to a year ago thanks to the development of his splitter and curveball. He threw both of those pitches at the big league level for the first time last year. It’s hoped that the more diverse arsenal can help him find more success as he turns a lineup over. Mlodzinski has allowed a line of .214/.281/.294 when facing a lineup for the first time as a starter but a massive .381/.422/.607 line the second time through.
For what it’s worth, he had a great camp. Spring performances always need to be taken with a grain of salt but he posted a 2.92 ERA with a 25% strikeout rate, 3.6% walk rate and 56.8% ground ball rate. The Bucs will give him a chance to carry that forward into the regular season.
Jared Jones will be returning from his surgery at some point in the coming months and will need a rotation spot but other injuries will likely pop up between now and then. Mlodzinski does still have an option and could be sent to the minors but that’s also true of Ashcraft, Chandler and Jones. Time will tell how it all shakes out.
For now, there are domino effects for the other guys who were in the mix. Urquidy has had a decent career but missed most of 2024 and 2025 recovering from Tommy John surgery. The Bucs gave him a big league deal but he didn’t have a good camp, allowing 11 earned runs in 10 2/3 innings. He’ll seemingly start the season as a long reliever, presumably for mop-up duty.
As for Barco, it’s a bit of a surprise to see him on the Opening Day roster. He has options and is still expected to be a valuable starter in the long run, so there was an argument for having him stretched out in Triple-A.
Mackey suggests his path forward could mirror that of Ashcraft, who tossed 69 2/3 innings in the majors last year and 48 1/3 in the minors. The major league work was split between eight starts and 18 bullpen appearances, most of which were for more than an inning. Ashcraft went into 2025 having never thrown more than 73 innings in a season. He got to 118 last year, between his minor league starts and that big league hybrid role. That should put him in place to jump to something resembling a full starter’s workload in 2026.
Barco got to 102 1/3 innings last year between the majors and minors, a personal high for him. Ideally, he will push that up this year in order to keep building towards a full starter’s workload. For now, that will be in the big league bullpen. He has options and could be sent down for regular Triple-A work at some point or perhaps injuries will open a rotation role in the majors.
As for Clevinger, it’s been a few years since he was an effective starter in the big leagues, which is why he had to settle for a minor league deal this offseason. His velocity was up this spring, an encouraging sign, but the results weren’t enough to grab a roster spot. He struck out 25% of batters faced in spring games but also gave out walks at a 16.7% clip and posted a 5.02 ERA.
He’ll presumably be in the Triple-A rotation, staying ready for a potential call-up at some point. The fact that he’s not on the 40-man roster could work against him. Thomas Harrington and Wilber Dotel have 40-man spots and will also be making Triple-A starts while on optional assignment.
Photo courtesy of Charles LeClaire, Imagn Images
The Pirates’ Rotation Options
Pittsburgh has spent the majority of the offseason focused on hitting. For a club that finished dead last in scoring last season, the approach makes sense. The Pirates parted with a pair of young starters to acquire more bats. The team sent Mike Burrows to Houston in a three-way trade that netted them Brandon Lowe and Jake Mangum. Pittsburgh moved Johan Oviedo to Boston for Jhostynxon Garcia. The deals have left them with a void to fill at the end of the rotation.
Paul Skenes, Bubba Chandler, and Mitch Keller are the locks. Braxton Ashcraft has a decent claim to the No. 4 spot. The young righty initially worked as a multi-inning reliever before transitioning to a starting role. Ashcraft either started or piggybacked with another starter in his final nine appearances. He allowed two earned runs or fewer in all but one outing in that stretch.
Jared Jones would be the obvious choice to round out the group if he were healthy, but the right-hander underwent UCL surgery in May. He expressed optimism about his progression at PiratesFest this week. Jones told reporters, including Colin Beazley of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, that he’s worked up to two bullpens a week and has been mixing in offspeed pitches. Even with the encouraging results, Jones will be hard-pressed to be ready for Opening Day. The recovery timeline for the surgery is typically 10 to 12 months. Pittsburgh is likely to take it slow with its prized asset.
Here’s a look at the top candidates to open the season as Pittsburgh’s fifth starter. Given Chandler’s inexperience and Ashcraft’s limited workload, there could be an opportunity to remain in the rotation even after Jones’ return.
The Incumbent: Carmen Mlodzinski
Of the current Pirates not named Skenes or Keller, Mlodzinski made the most starts last season. He tossed a career-high 99 innings between the rotation and the bullpen. Mlodzinski made nine starts to begin the year, but put up an ERA well over 5.00. He found himself at Triple-A Indianapolis by mid-May. The 26-year-old returned to the big-league club in June, operating primarily as a reliever. He chipped in a handful of spot starts down the stretch.
Mlodzinski has been a valuable member of the pitching staff since debuting in 2023. He’s compiled a 3.25 ERA across 109 games. The adjustment to starting just hasn’t suited him, at least not yet. Mlodzinski has a 4.47 ERA as a starter, compared to a 2.71 mark as a reliever. He would seem to have a deep enough arsenal to get through the order multiple times, as he threw five different pitches at least 10% of the time in 2025, but the results haven’t shown it. Opponents have hit just .214 against Mlodzinski the first time through the order. That number jumps to .381 the second time through the order. Mlodzinski is probably best used in a versatile role, instead of as a locked-in rotation piece.
The Rookies: Thomas Harrington and Hunter Barco
Pittsburgh’s second and third picks in the 2022 draft are on the verge of contributing with the big-league squad. Both Harrington and Barco made their debuts this past season, but only for a handful of appearances apiece. They have options remaining and are long shots to make the Opening Day roster, but they’d be the most intriguing choices.
Harrington had moved swiftly through Pittsburgh’s system until hitting a roadblock in 2025. After pitching decently at Triple-A to close the 2024 campaign, he struggled mightily at Indianapolis last year. Harrington stumbled to a 5.34 ERA with a middling 21.7% strikeout rate. After posting above-average strikeout numbers at previous stops, Harrington has failed to reach 22% in both stints at Triple-A. He was hammered for 15 earned runs over 8 2/3 innings in his brief MLB time.
Barco didn’t reach Triple-A until May. He kept his ERA under 4.00 with more than a strikeout per inning, though it came with a career-worst 13% walk rate. His swing-and-miss numbers have been much more impressive than Harrington’s, but the control has been a step behind recently. Barco tossed three scoreless innings with the Pirates at the tail end of the season. The fact that he succeeded in his cup of coffee and Harrington flopped might be enough to give him the edge on a roster spot. Barco would also give Pittsburgh a lefty in the rotation.
The Classic Pittsburgh Free Agent
Speaking of lefties, we’ve arrived at the most likely scenario. Pittsburgh has a penchant for relying on veteran southpaws to eat innings at the back of the rotation. As MLBTR’s Anthony Franco pointed out, Jose Quintana, Martín Pérez, and Tyler Anderson have all fit the bill in recent seasons. It was Andrew Heaney and trade acquisition Bailey Falter this past year.
General manager Ben Cherington has mentioned adding to the rotation. Quintana, Anderson, and Perez are still available. How about Patrick Corbin? After being one of the worst pitchers in the league in his final years in Washington, he had a resurgence of sorts in Texas last year. Corbin navigated his way to a sub-4.00 ERA through July. He was knocked around over the final two months of the season, but he put together a respectable first half. The 36-year-old Corbin could be the next soft-tossing lefty to find success at PNC Park.
Photo courtesy of Nathan Ray Seebeck, Imagn Images
Pirates Promote Hunter Barco
Sept. 23: The Pirates have formally announced Barco’s promotion. His contract has been selected to the 40-man roster, and Simon has indeed been transferred to the 60-day IL to create space. That’ll officially end Simon’s season. Lefty Evan Sisk was optioned to clear an active roster spot for Barco.
Sept. 22: The Pirates are calling up pitching prospect Hunter Barco, reports Brent Martineau of CBS47/FOX30. The Bucs will need to make corresponding moves to open active and 40-man roster spots for the lefty. The 40-man move might be easy since infielder/outfielder Ronny Simon recently dislocated his left shoulder. If he’s not coming back in the final few days, he could be moved from the 10-day injured list to the 60-day.
Barco, now 24, was selected by the Pirates in the second round of the 2022 draft. Since then, he has been putting up good numbers on the farm, climbing the ranks of the minors while also climbing up prospect rankings.
Many in the industry considered him a potential first-round pick while he was pitching for Florida. Unfortunately, he required Tommy John surgery before being drafted, which bumped him down the board and allowed the Bucs to get him in the second round.
He recovered from that procedure and was able to get back on the mound late in 2023, though he only logged 18 1/3 innings that year. He got a more proper professional season last year, throwing 66 innings over 18 appearances, split between High-A and Double-A. He allowed 3.27 earned runs per nine, struck out 31.2% of batters faced, gave out walks at an 8.3% clip and got grounders on 46.4% of balls in play.
This year, he has stretched out to 99 1/3 innings between Double-A and Triple-A. In that time, he has a 2.81 ERA, 27.8% strikeout rate, 11.8% walk rate and 45.8% ground ball rate. The Triple-A season finished yesterday, so he wasn’t going to have a chance to add to that innings total if he stayed on the farm.
He was slated to be Rule 5 eligible this winter. The Bucs were surely going to add him to their 40-man roster to protect him, meaning he was going to be using up a 40-man roster spot this offseason regardless. By adding him now, they can put a few more innings on his arm here in 2025, get him accustomed to the big league environment and see how his stuff plays against major league opponents.
The Pirates have been stuck in a rebuild for a while now, but those prone to optimism could point to a few things. Shortstop prospect Konnor Griffin is now considered one of the top prospects in the sport, with some outlets considering him to be the very best. He is only 19 years old but has reached Double-A and could plausibly make a major league debut at some point in 2026. At the big league level, guys like Spencer Horwitz, Jared Triolo and Bryan Reynolds are having strong second halves, perhaps giving the position player group a bit of momentum towards better results next year.
But the most notable part of the Pirates’ roster is their collection of talented and controllable starting pitching options. Paul Skenes is one of the best pitchers alive right now and is controlled for another four seasons after this one. Mitch Keller is a solid mid-rotation guy who is signed through 2028. Johan Oviedo just returned from a long surgery layoff but he could be a viable back-end guy.
Then there’s a big cluster of young guys who are just bubbling to the big league level. Bubba Chandler, Mike Burrows, Braxton Ashcraft and Thomas Harrington have all made it to the majors but each one still has fewer than 100 big league innings, with varying degrees of big league success. Jared Jones had a nice debut last year, posting a 4.14 ERA in 121 2/3 innings, but he required UCL surgery in May of this year and will be out until mid-2026.
There are still lots of question marks in that group, given the limited experience of most of those guys, but it’s possible the front office thinks about using this collection of starting pitchers on the trade market. The Pirates have had great difficulty developing hitters. They also have one of the smallest payrolls in the league, which means solving the problem in free agency isn’t likely to happen either.
This summer, there were plenty of rumors surrounding the Pittsburgh rotation. Keller in particular seemed to get a lot of attention but ultimately wasn’t moved. The Bucs did flip Bailey Falter to the Royals, but that was a far less impactful deal than a potential deal of Keller or anyone else in this group.
Going into the winter, it will be an interesting situation to watch. The Pirates could hold onto all of their pitchers and see how things play out in 2026. Not all of them will meet expectations and some of them will surely get hurt. There would be risk in subtracting an arm or two and reducing the overall depth, though it also might be the club’s best path to making a notable lineup boost. For now, they can get a look at Barco in the majors and see how it goes, but some big decisions will have to be made in the coming months.
At this late stage of the calendar, Barco won’t be able to exhaust rookie status before the winter arrives. That means the prospect promotion incentive could be on the table in 2026, depending on where he lands on prospect lists between now and then. A player is PPI eligible if he is on two of the three top 100 lists from Baseball America, ESPN and MLB Pipeline. He’s currently listed in the #82 spot at MLB Pipeline, though he’s not on BA’s list and wasn’t on the ESPN August update.
Photo courtesy of Kim Klement Neitzel, Imagn Images
Which Arms Could The Pirates *Actually* Trade This Summer?
This week's report that there's "no chance" the Pirates trade ace Paul Skenes, just one and a half seasons into his six-year window of club control, stood out as fairly obvious for most onlookers. That anyone felt it needed to be said at all was more a reflection on the organization as a whole than Skenes himself.
Pittsburgh has taken a step back this season, sitting on pace to win 56 games after winning 76 games in both 2023 and 2024. A rebuild that has seen the Bucs pick ninth or better in five consecutive drafts, including No. 1 overall in 2021 and 2023, has not only failed to produce a contender -- it's failed to even produce a farm system that ranks in the top third of MLB. The team at Baseball America ranked the Pirates with MLB's 16th-best system prior to this season. Keith Law of The Athletic did the same. MLB.com's trio of Jim Callis, Jonathan Mayo and Sam Dykstra ranked the Bucs 14th. ESPN's Kiley McDaniel was more bearish, ranking them 20th.
The Pirates already fired manager Derek Shelton. General manager Ben Cherington can't feel as secure as he did a few seasons ago. Owner Bob Nutting bears the brunt of the blame; his refusal to invest in the roster leaves the front office and coaching staff zero margin for error. Nutting's overwhelmingly frugal nature also leaves veritably no chance that Skenes will be signed long-term.
Just because a trade at some point down the road feels inevitable, however, does not mean it'll happen this year. That's never seemed likely, and while the "no way, no chance, no how" quote was from a Pirates executive who preferred to remain anonymous rather than place their name on those words, GM Ben Cherington soon offered a similar sentiment on the record.
The Pirates, for all their warts, are still a pitching-rich organization. The name at the very top of the pyramid may not be on the move, but the Pirates will have no shortage of pitchers who are legitimately available this summer. There's always a broad range of "availability." Pure veteran rentals will probably be aggressively shopped. Pitchers signed/controlled through 2026 will presumably be available but with a higher price tag. And there will be some arms with even more club control on whom the Bucs will listen but not outright dangle to contenders seeking to bolster their own staffs.
Let's run through some of the likely available inventory.
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