Pirates GM remains mum on timeline for promotion of top prospect Bubba Chandler

As Bubba Chandler plays the waiting game to be promoted, the man who makes that call remains non-committal about a timeline for baseball’s top pitching prospect to make his major-league debut.

Pittsburgh Pirates general manager Ben Cherington said Sunday on his weekly radio show that Chandler’s efficiency and where he will slot into the starting rotation are both factors for a decision.

“He’s certainly showing enough to tell everybody that he’s good enough to pitch in the major leagues, and that’s bound to happen at some point,” Cherington said on team flagship 93.7 FM. “It seems a matter of time. None of us seems to know when.”

It could come during the Pirates’ nine-game homestand, though it won’t be for the series against the Houston Astros. The Pirates have Paul Skenes scheduled to start against Lance McCullers Jr. on Tuesday, Mike Burrows against Ryan Gusto on Wednesday and Mitch Keller against lefty Framber Valdez on Thursday. The Pirates host the Philadelphia Phillies over the weekend and the Miami Marlins June 9-11.

Chandler, a 22-year-old right-hander, is 2-1 with a 2.03 ERA, 1.07 WHIP and 69 strikeouts against 21 walks in 48 2/3 innings over 11 starts at Triple-A Indianapolis this season. He allowed four hits and one walk with eight strikeouts in five scoreless innings Friday against Nashville.

That the outing required 92 pitches (56 strikes) was noted by play-by-play man Greg Brown as a sign that Chandler could be more efficient, especially when he faces big league hitters.

“For every day he’s in Triple-A, there’s just an opportunity to keep the standard really high, and he’s doing a good job with that,” Cherington said. “The intensity of the matchups does increase at the major-league level. You mentioned that word, ‘efficiency,’ and if we’re using X amount of pitches to get through a certain amount of innings in Triple-A, well, sometimes that means you can take an inning off that.”

Ranked the No. 2 prospect by MLB Pipeline and No. 3 by Baseball America, Chandler has an elite fastball-changeup combination complemented by a curveball and slider. But the Pirates, who are in last place in the NL Central, appear to be manipulating his service time to avoid Chandler gaining Super 2 status and maintain another year of club control before he reaches arbitration.

“We’ll just continue to support Bubba in any way we can to be as sharp he possibly can and keep that standard really high for whatever time he’s there,” Cherington said. “The situation with the team, him continuing to do what he needs to, stay healthy, etc., it seems a matter of time at some point before we see him in a Pirates uniform.

“And, by the way, that was the goal at the beginning of spring training, certainly a conversation we had at the beginning of spring training: We want Bubba to be in a position to pitch games at the major-league level for Pittsburgh, help us win games at the major-league level for Pittsburgh in 2025. Certainly, that goal is still in front of us, and he’s doing his part to make sure it happens.”

Cherington was more optimistic regarding the return of a pair of injured players. He said catcher Joey Bart’s stint on the seven-day concussion injured list isn’t expected to require any additional time, and second baseman Nick Gonzales is close to returning from a rehabilitation assignment with Triple-A Indianapolis.

Gonzales suffered a non-displaced fracture in his left ankle in the season opener at Miami on March 27, then was hit by a pitch on his right hand in his first game with Indianapolis. Gonzales batted .219 through his first eight games but was 7 for 18 in his past three. He started at shortstop against Nashville on Sunday.

“We’re hopeful it’s soon, certainly hopeful during the homestand,” Cherington said. “I think we’ll get an update after (Sunday), see how he’s feeling and maybe check in on him (Monday) and see how soon, really soon that might be.”