The final few spots on the Pittsburgh Pirates’ Opening Day roster are filling in as spring training nears its conclusion.
On Sunday afternoon, as the Pirates took on the Boston Red Sox in their penultimate spring contest, manager Don Kelly answered a major remaining question as to who would be the club’s final starting pitcher to begin the season.
It will be Carmen Mlodzinski in that role, and the 27-year-old righty, per Kelly, is set to take the hill Sunday in New York vs. the Mets.
Reigning NL Cy Young winner Paul Skenes will start the season-opener Thursday at Citi Field, followed by Mitch Keller on Saturday (Friday is an off-day). After the Pirates wrap up in New York, they will travel to Cincinnati, where righties Braxton Ashcraft and Bubba Chandler are slated to start vs. the Reds on March 30 and 31.
“We just felt like it sets us up from a matchup standpoint, from a rotation standpoint, the best way to win as many games as we can, starting off the season like that,” manager Don Kelly said Sunday during SportsNet Pittsburgh’s broadcast of the Pirates’ spring training game vs. Boston.
Mlodzinski, who went 2-0 with a 2.92 ERA over four Grapefruit League appearances (three starts) this spring, edged rookie Hunter Barco, free agent signee Jose Urquidy and veteran Mike Clevinger to secure the final stater’s gig.
It will be a role in which Mlodzinski is familiar.
Last season, Mlodzinski began the season in the Pirates’ rotation, making nine starts before being optioned to Triple-A Indianapolis in May.
Recalled a few weeks later, Mlodzinski returned to the bullpen, where he’s been utilized for the majority of his big-league career.
He made a handful of spot starts, and by year’s end, had put together a solid overall performance, going 5-8 with a 3.55 ERA over 34 appearances (12 starts).
Mlodzinski pitched 99 innings, striking out 89 with 27 walks while posting a 1.30 WHIP.
In 2024, Mlodzinski appeared in 40 games for the Pirates, going 5-5 with a 3.38 ERA primarily out of the bullpen while being deployed on occasion as a spot starter.
A 2020 Competitive Balance Round A draft pick by the Pirates, Mlodzinski came up as a starter collegiately at South Carolina and continued in that role professionally through Double-A.
But upon reaching Triple-A Indianapolis in 2023, he was converted into a reliever. To date, 92 of his 117 big-league appearances have come out of the bullpen.
Mlodzinski will head into the regular season with a refined repertoire, as he’s tinkered with his four-seamer and splitter while continuing to throw a sinker, curveball, sweeper and slider.
Behind a strong spring and some tweaks to his arsenal, Mlodzinski aims to hit the ground running in stronger fashion than a season ago, when he had a 6.58 ERA and .330 batting average against in March and April.
“I’m not expecting to struggle the first month,” Mlodzinski said in late February. “I want to dominate, but you have to be realistic. This is a pattern that’s happened three or four seasons now, so we’re putting a lot of emphasis into, ‘How do we clean up that first month?’ It seems like the ship sails pretty cleanly after that, once I make those adjustments.
“I’m pretty aware of that spring drain of that and want to make sure that adjustments happen more quickly this year.”
Skenes, the 2025 NL Cy Young winner, 2024 NL Rookie of the Year and two-time All-Star, unsurprisingly will take the rubber in Thursday’s season-opener.
This spring, which included an interruption to represent the United States at the World Baseball Classic, Skenes made two starts, going 1-0 with a 1.42 ERA over 6 2/3 innings.
Last year, he was 10-10 with a 1.97 ERA, 216 strikeouts, 0.95 WHIP and .199 batting average against over 32 starts in his first full big-league campaign.
Keller, 29, is the longest-tenured player in the Pirates’ organization. He was selected in the second round (No. 64 overall) of the 2014 MLB Draft.
Durable, with 30-plus starts the past four seasons, Keller’s performance over that span has been subject to fluctuation, featuring months of being near unhittable along with stretches of struggles.
In 2025, he went 6-15 with a 4.19 ERA, setting a career-high in losses. However, he tied for sixth in the big leagues with 17 quality starts (Skenes had 20, by comparison), throwing 176 1/3 innings.
This spring, Keller was 0-1 with a 4.80 ERA over five starts.
“His sinker’s been really, really good,” Kelly said of Keller following the latter’s start vs. Boston on Sunday. “Mitch did a really good job today.”
Ashcraft, a 6-foot-5 righty, earned a rotation spot behind an impressive spring, as he went 1-0 with a 2.03 ERA through four starts, striking out 16 with just one walk in 13 1/3 innings.
The 26-year-old excelled with the Pirates last season after making his MLB debut May 26.
Beginning in the bullpen before making a total of eight starts, Ashcraft pitched in 26 games, going 4-4 with a 2.71 ERA, 71 strikeouts and 24 walks in 69 2/3 innings.
Chandler has yet to translate his status as one of the Pirates’ top prospects into sustained big-league success.
After making an anticipated MLB debut with the Pirates on Aug. 22, Chandler navigated some early struggles, including a nine-run shellacking in early September during his fourth big-league appearance.
But by year’s end, the hard-throwing right-hander finished with a 4-1 record and 4.02 ERA over seven games (four starts).
Opposing hitters batted .214 against him, and he struck out 31 with only four walks through 31 1/3 innings.
Spring saw the 23-year-old go 1-1 with a 6.55 ERA through four appearances and 11 innings, with 17 strikeouts and 11 walks.
