Ben Cherington was diplomatic in discussing the Pittsburgh Pirates bullpen, acknowledging the inconsistency of their right-handed relievers as an area in need of improvement.
Cherington believes there are three solutions to the bullpen blues, the first that the relievers will return to their norms, the second that there are pitchers within the organization who could be added to the bullpen before exploring external options.
That forced the Pirates general manager to address the elephant in the room — or, in this case, the home dugout — before Thursday’s game against the Colorado Rockies: How the return of Jared Jones later this month could provide a solution to their starting rotation or bullpen, depending on how the Pirates deploy the 24-year-old right-hander.
The 6-foot, 211-pound Jones was 6-8 with a 4.14 ERA and 1.19 WHIP with 132 strikeouts and 39 walks in 121 2/3 innings over 22 starts in 2024, including a pair of 10-strikeout performances, but spent six weeks on the injured list with a right lat strain.
Jones will make the fourth start of his rehabilitation assignment Sunday for Double-A Altoona. After missing more than a season following InternalBrace surgery on his right elbow last year, Jones is eligible to be activated from the 60-day injured list May 24.
“When he’s back, we believe he’s just going to make our group of 13 stronger,” Cherington said of the pitching staff. “Exactly what that means in terms of roles, we’re not there yet. We’re going to keep taking it a day at a time. But, one way or another, we believe he makes the group stronger. We’ll see where we are when we get to that point.”
Following his first start for the Curve, Jones was asked about whether he would pitch out of the bullpen upon returning to the Pirates. Jones, who has started 94 of his 98 games as a professional and made 22 starts for the Pirates in 2024, appeared to take offense to the question.
“No,” Jones said, shaking his head. “Next question.”
Both Cherington and Pirates manager Don Kelly have repeatedly said they view Jones as a starter long-term, which Cherington reiterated. That doesn’t mean the Pirates won’t consider easing him back into the starting rotation through a bulk relief role out of the bullpen, much the same way they did with rookie right-handers Braxton Ashcraft, Mike Burrows and Bubba Chandler last season. Ashcraft pitched in relief in 18 of his 26 appearances, Chandler in his first three before making four starts and Burrows in four of 23 outings.
“My view of the comments and talking to Jared is that he wanted to talk about the outing and not what was going to happen three weeks from now,” Cherington said. “We certainly believe he’s a starting pitcher. We’ll make the determinations about exactly who is in what role when he’s ready to come back on the team. Certainly, very possible he’s starting games but we want to take it an outing at a time with all these guys.”
The Pirates don’t have a right-handed reliever with an ERA below Dennis Santana’s 3.63 — and Santana has a 12.46 ERA over his past five appearances — so the addition of a hard-throwing righty who can pitch multiple innings would be an unbelievable boost to the bullpen.
Whether that would come from Jones or one of the pitchers he could replace in the rotation, mostly likely Carmen Mlodzinski or rookie Bubba Chandler, depends on what the Pirates decide to do with Jones. Mlodzinski fared better out of the bullpen last season, but Chandler has dealt with command issues early this year.
“I love Jared. When we get him back, this team’s just going to keep going. You can’t think about that stuff,” Chandler said. “We’re all competitors. We all want to outdo one another. We just want to compete and have fun while we’re doing it. When Jared comes back, it’s just another level of competitiveness. The guy wants to embarrass you out there. You throw him in the mix with us other five guys, it should be pretty good.”
Pirates senior director of sports medicine Todd Tomczyk said Jones could gradually increase his workload after throwing 52 pitches over four innings in Tuesday’s start for Altoona. Despite a “rather robust database” of major-league pitchers who have undergone a similar surgery, Tomczyk stressed that Jones’ journey is unique.
“That is a high-level, collaborative effort from performance team to the front office to the manager to the pitching coach to our R&D team and notably the player, right?” Tomczyk said. “Jared has to have an ownership into this and a lot of things go into that factor. Past workload, how he recovers, efficient he’s been. So, it’s not just one individual metric. It’s a conglomeration of a lot of different factors that go into it.”
The collaboration with Jones will continue while he’s with the Pirates this week, where he’s expected to throw a side session at PNC Park before his next rehab start for Altoona.
“Long-term, we see Jared Jones as a starter, and as we continue to work through this, we’re going to put Jared and all of our pitchers in the best spot possible,” Kelly said. “We’ll be working through that with him, and I think that he’s in a really good spot. Throwing the ball really well and excited to get Jared back.”
