An early Ben Cherington building block, Carmen Mlodzinski aims to bolster Pirates' bullpen

General manager Ben Cherington started the long process of rebuilding the Pittsburgh Pirates roster with draft picks in the summer of 2020. His predecessor (Neal Huntington) and the team’s manager (Clint Hurdle) had been fired after the previous season, and the roster had plenty of holes.

Cherington chose infielder Nick Gonzales and pitcher Carmen Mlodzinski as his first picks — Nos. 7 and 31 — in his first MLB Draft as the team’s GM.

Now, both players are in the majors, trying to help the Pirates dig out from under a slump in which they have won only twice in the past 15 games.

Mlodzinski, a native of Hilton Head Island, S.C., who played college baseball at South Carolina, holds the distinction of being the first Cherington draft pick with the Pirates to make it to the majors. He was called up from Triple-A Indianapolis on June 16. Gonzales followed eight days later.

Mlodzinski, 24, hasn’t been a pitcher for long. He moved from the infield as a high school senior, and only managed 5.52 and 5.91 ERAs in his first two seasons at South Carolina. He also dealt with a foot injury.

In the Cape Cod League during the summer of 2019, he recorded a 2.15 ERA and 40 strikeouts with only four walks in 29⅓ innings. Then, as a redshirt sophomore for the Gamecocks in 2020, he recorded a 2.84 ERA in four games before the covid-19 pandemic ended the season.

After the draft in June of 2020, the minor-league shutdown meant Mlodzinski couldn’t join a team until 2021. He quickly found himself in Triple-A for one two-inning outing that season, but he spent most of it in Single-A Greensboro. Mlodzinski, who was drafted in the supplemental portion of the 2020 first round, doesn’t believe he was fast-tracked to the big leagues.

“That call up to Triple-A my first year in pro ball was just an opportunity to see how those guys in Triple-A do things,” he said, “and be able to apply it.”

He was in Double-A Altoona last year, and found success this spring with Indianapolis, posting a 2-2 record, 3.16 ERA, 1.364 WHIP, with 31 strikeouts in 25⅔ innings.

With the Pirates, Mlodzinski has appeared in five games, working 5⅓ innings, allowing five hits, one walk and three earned runs. Three of those hits came Thursday in an ill-fated eighth inning when Dauri Moreta and Mlodzinski failed to hold a 4-1 lead in Miami. Otherwise, he’s had three scoreless and two hitless outings.

“It’s a combination of being able to have the opportunity to get here, which I’m thankful for,” he said. “Also, the same thing (like) a lot of these guys, putting your head down, going to work and understanding the circumstances around you and really just continuing to work on your craft each day.”

He also credits catchers Austin Hedges and Jason Delay.

“Being able to feed off what Delay and Hedges are putting down and really selling out and trusting what those guys are doing,” he said. “They have called just excellent games for me this year, really put me in position for success and just having the mentality of attacking hitters.”

Going forward, he hopes to find more consistency in his efforts.

“I think everybody is going to run into some difficulties in their career and everybody’s going to go through ups and downs,” he said. “So far, it’s been good and the guys in this clubhouse have been very open to accepting me and being able to put me in position for success.”