'Bet on it': Pirates GM confident Bubba Chandler will make MLB debut this season

If Ben Cherington were a gambling man, the Pittsburgh Pirates general manager would be willing to bet top pitching prospect Bubba Chandler will make his major-league debut this season.

The Pirates are playing the waiting game with the 22-year-old Chandler, a 6-foot-3, 218-pound right-hander who is ranked the No. 4 prospect by MLB Pipeline and No. 8 by Baseball America, in an effort to protect his rookie eligibility.

Per MLB rules, a pitcher is considered a rookie until he exceeds 50 innings in the majors or 45 total days on an active roster during the season. So Chandler will likely have to wait another week.

“It’s still our desire to see him in Pittsburgh, so I’ll bet on that happening at some point,” Cherington said Sunday afternoon on his weekly radio show on team flagship 93.7 FM. “It happens for two reasons. One is that the opportunity has to open. We’re not going to force someone out of a spot just to do it, unless there’s a reason to. If someone is here and they’re doing their job and performing well, we don’t want to do that just to do it. The opportunity has to open to some degree. The players, Bubba and there may be others, have to do their part.”

After an electric start to the season, where Chandler was dominant in April and May, he endured a rough June when he posted an 8.53 ERA, 2.29 WHIP and .309 batting average against and had more walks (12) than strikeouts (11). Chandler improved in July, with a 4.05 ERA and twice as many strikeouts (26) as walks (12), but is being hit at a .364 clip in August. He allowed three runs in 4 2/3 innings with seven strikeouts against one walk in his most recent start, against Omaha.

“Over the past few weeks he’s had some really good outings; he’s had some other ones where he’s struggled,” Cherington said. “To some degree, I believe, the challenges he’s gone through long term will end up being helpful. I always feel a little better when a player experiences some adversity in the minor leagues before they experience adversity in the major leagues because you know there’s going to be adversity in the major leagues.

“So, in some ways, it doesn’t bother me that he’s been challenged a little bit. We’ve continued to work with him to just be who he is, to be consistent and be the best version of Bubba Chandler. I think we’re seeing that more often than not.”

Meantime, Cherington defended his decision to promote righty Mike Burrows instead of Chandler, which drew criticism. Entering Sunday’s start against the Cincinnati Reds, Burrows was 1-4 with a 4.80 ERA, 1.29 WHIP and .240 batting average against in 65 2/3 innings over 15 games, including 14 starts.

“We try to put a player in a position that when they do come up they’re ready for success,” Cherington said. “At the time, there was some reaction to that, like, why was it Burrows and not Chandler? These are tough decisions, but they’re not made by flipping a coin. There were reasons we felt Michael was in a spot to come up and compete and be in a position to have success, and he’s mostly done that. He’s had a couple rougher outings, but he’s had some good ones. He’s shown that he was ready for that opportunity. He’s competed and helped us. He’s also a really important part of our team going forward.”

More recently, the Pirates activated another righty, Johan Oviedo, to fill the spot in the rotation opened when lefty Bailey Falter was dealt to the Kansas City Royals at the trade deadline.

In his first start in the majors since September 2023, however, Oviedo threw 43 pitches in the first inning last Monday against the San Francisco Giants. That forced the bullpen to finish the final eight innings, which required a roster move to add a reliever.

“It was not our intention to option him when he started that game on Monday,” Cherington said. “Certainly our hope was that that would be a good outing and he’d get the ball five days later or six days later. It just so happens in that first inning, the pitch count built up. It triggers two things: One, we’ve got to use a lot of pitching that night. We felt need to add a pitcher back. Of course, to do that you’ve got to take somebody off. Oviedo wasn’t going to be available for a while. So he’s the guy we took. Once that happened, we’re not going to bring him back to 80 (pitches) in one outing. So, let’s send him down, build his count back up a little bit more mentally than that, let’s see where we are in 15 days.”

So, the Pirates optioned Oviedo to Triple-A Indianapolis, where he has to stay for 15 days unless there’s an injury. Oviedo threw 63 pitches in 3 2/3 innings Saturday against Omaha, allowing one run on two hits and one walk with eight strikeouts. Cherington said Oviedo would likely make one more start at Indy before returning to the Pirates.

Rookie Braxton Ashcraft started Saturday in that turn in the rotation, giving up one run on three hits and one walk while recording five strikeouts in 3 1/3 innings in the 2-1 loss to the Reds. The Pirates are off Thursday before that spot opens up again Friday at the Chicago, so it’s possible Ashcraft could make another start.

Cherington said the Pirates want to see as many as five pitchers get starts in the majors before the season ends and didn’t deny the possibility that they could use a six-man rotation when rosters expand in September.

But he expects to see Chandler sometime this summer.

“I’d still bet on that happening,” Cherington said. “He’s working really hard, and our group is working really hard with him. He’s incredibly important to our future. He’s got a chance to be a very, very good major-league starting pitcher.”