Pirates have message for starting rotation hopefuls: Be ready to pitch, whatever the role

As Ben Cherington discussed how the Pittsburgh Pirates are going to manage their starting rotation for the remainder of the season, the general manager interrupted his train of thought to explain an exception.

“We’re not declaring that one pitcher is in the rotation and one pitcher is not, aside from Skenes and Keller,” Cherington said Sunday afternoon on his weekly radio show on 93.7 FM. “Take those two out of it.”

As the Pirates open a six-game homestand with a three-game series against the Toronto Blue Jays at PNC Park, this much is crystal clear: Paul Skenes and Mitch Keller will start the first two games.

Beyond that, Pirates manager Don Kelly has relayed a message to their starting hopefuls: Be ready to pitch, whatever the role.

By dealing one left-hander, Bailey Falter, to Kansas City at the trade deadline and moving another, Andrew Heaney, to the bullpen, the Pirates created two openings in their starting rotation. How they fill those starts will likely be more fluid than a fixed plan.

Against the Chicago Cubs, the Pirates started right-handers Braxton Ashcraft, Mike Burrows and Carmen Mlodzinski. All three showed signs that they deserve longer looks, although Johan Oviedo and prospects Bubba Chandler, Hunter Barco and Thomas Harrington also figure to get spot starts over the final six weeks.

“We have a number of guys both on the major-league team currently and potentially in Triple-A that we wouldn’t mind seeing some starts from here over the last stretch of the season,” Cherington said. “We haven’t planned this out for the rest of the season, either. We’re going to take it a week at a time and allocate the starts to the guys that we believe it makes the most sense to, towards the guys who deserve it the most.”

Ashcraft, a 25-year-old rookie right-hander, allowed one run on three hits without a walk and four strikeouts in an efficient 61 pitches over five innings in Friday’s 3-2 win over the Cubs. It was his third start out of 19 appearances this season, as he’s pitched primarily in bulk relief.

“Braxton’s done a really good job,” Cherington said. “Braxton is one of those young pitchers — some of them are on the team already, some of them aren’t — who we can envision making starts down the stretch.”

Burrows is another 25-year-old rookie right-hander who has impressed at times. He’s 1-4 with a 4.46 ERA and 1.27 WHIP in 16 appearances (15 starts) for the Pirates this season. Burrows has thrown 105 innings, already exceeding his previous career-high 94 1/3 in 2022, when he split the season between Double-A Altoona and Triple-A Indianapolis and was named the Pirates’ minor-league pitcher of the year.

The following year, Burrows underwent Tommy John surgery, so the club will closely monitor his pitch and innings counts. That explains why Burrows was removed after the fifth inning despite allowing one run on five hits and two walks on 68 pitches.

“We’re going to manage his volume the rest of the way in a way that he does not get past or certainly too far past a rough inning target we had for him at the beginning of the year,” Cherington said, declining to specify that target number.

“Let’s just say, if he went six innings every start the rest of the way, he’s going to blow past that rough innings target. We still want him to pitch. He’s done a lot of good things since he’s come up to the big leagues this year. He’s clearly showing that he can be part of a really good pitching staff going forward. We want him to continue pitching as much as it stays reasonable for him and to help the team the rest of the way. We’re just going to have to manage it. There may be some adjustments to his usage as we get into September.”

Mlodzinski made the Opening Day starting rotation and was 1-4 with a 5.67 ERA and 1.61 WHIP in 39 2/3 innings over nine starts before he was sent to the minors. He moved back to the bullpen upon returning to the majors before making his first start since May 17.

The shuffling of starters took its toll against the Cubs when the bullpen was without Ashcraft and Mlodzinski and got uneven performances from lefties Heaney and Evan Sisk. Perhaps that explains why Cherington hasn’t committed to keeping either pitcher in the rotation.

“When it’s time to take the hill, the thing we want the pitcher to do is only think about one thing, and that’s get outs,” Cherington said. “Get outs until the manager comes out and takes you or meets you in the dugout after the inning and shakes your hand. That’s the only thing we want. The mindset is get outs, don’t count outs.”

That it took Oviedo 43 pitches to get three outs in the first inning against the San Francisco Giants on Aug. 4 became a problem. The abbreviated start taxed the bullpen and forced the Pirates to option Oviedo to Indianapolis to add relievers to the active roster.

The Pirates had planned for Oviedo, who returned from Tommy John surgery to make his first major-league start since September 2023, to make multiple starts. Instead, he had to build his pitch count back up.

Oviedo accomplished that by throwing 63 pitches in 3 2/3 innings against Omaha on Aug. 9, then increasing his workload to 75 pitches over five innings against Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on Aug. 15.

“He’s really handled the whole situation very well,” Cherington said. “He’s gone down with a purpose, and he’s pitched well and worked hard. He’s someone we’d like to see in the major leagues again starting games in 2025.”

Harrington has allowed 15 earned runs on 18 hits in three appearances, including one start, for the Pirates. He hasn’t dominated the minors, either, going 7-9 with a 5.40 ERA at Indianapolis.

The 22-year-old Chandler is one of baseball’s top 10 prospects but has struggled since a hot start. He’s 5-6 with a 4.05 ERA and 1.48 WHIP in 100 innings over 24 starts, leading Indianapolis in both strikeouts (121) and walks (53). Barco, a 24-year-old lefty who is a top-100 prospect, is 2-1 with a 3.70 ERA and 1.32 WHIP in 58 1/3 innings over 15 starts.

What Cherington wants is to give all of the pitchers a taste of starting games in late August and September so the Pirates can get a glimpse of what their rotation could look like next season.

“The expectation is that they would go into spring training in 2026 as starting pitchers, prepare to be starting pitchers in 2026,” Cherington said. “Then again, we’ll have decisions to make at the end of spring training in 2026 as to exactly who the five are that you open the season with. However guys are used the rest of the season is not necessarily the role they’d be in next year. But we want to accomplish two things: One, we want to keep them in a competitive mode and help the team win; and keep the competition for the starting spots at a high level, that we don’t fall into ‘OK, I’ve got it now.’ Keep that standard high.”