BRADENTON, Fla. – As one of the more cerebral pitchers on the Pittsburgh Pirates, Carmen Mlodzinski is aware of the irony involved in his desire to be a starting pitcher versus his success as a reliever.
The 27-year-old right-hander has the seven-pitch arsenal of a starter — with more offerings in the works — but career numbers that show he’s been better out of the bullpen.
So, Mlodzinski reflected on reversing a trend by inducing irony to his offseason. He set sights on opening the season in the starting rotation by zeroing in on how he pitched in relief over the final three months.
“The way that I finished the season gave me confidence,” said Mlodzinski, who posted a 1.89 ERA over 47 2/3 innings in his final 20 appearances (three starts). “Any time you can finish on a high note, that’s a goal we all set. You want to finish well, and I was able to do that last year. It gave me essentially a blueprint for the offseason. I want to be able to start how I finished.”
The key was relying on the pitches that worked well for him late last season, balancing a ball-to-strike sinker with his four-seamer and concentrating on his bread-and-butter splitter and curveball.
“Those are the pitches you have confidence with,” Mlodzinski said, “so everything gets built around them.”
What Mlodzinski realized is that his greatest struggles through his first three seasons in the major leagues came in his first month with the Pirates. As a rookie in June 2023, he had a respectable 3.24 ERA and 1.08 WHIP with a .226 batting average against in seven relief appearances. The following May, however, Mlodzinski had a 9.39 ERA and 2.08 WHIP with a .333 batting average and .925 OPS.
As a starter last March and April, he was 1-3 with a 6.58 ERA, a .330 batting average against and .858 OPS in 26 innings over six starts. What Mlodzinski found is that he struggled the second and third times through the order, so he set out to identify what was at the root of his problems.
“It takes time to figure that out,” Mlodzinski said. “There’s very few guys that are going to come in and just straight up dominate. It’s been a blessing to watch Paul (Skenes) do it, but there just isn’t many of those guys. Definitely want the exposure to that. That’s something I’ve had conversations with (Pirates pitching coaches about) is that I like failing, in a sense. Every time I’ve failed with this organization, I always turn it into a positive.”
With Skenes, the 2025 National League Cy Young winner, set to anchor a staff featuring Mitch Keller and Bubba Chandler, Mlodzinski will contend with Braxton Ashcraft and Jose Urquidy for one of the final two spots in the Opening Day starting rotation.
Mlodzinski opened spring training on a strong note by striking out three of the first four batters he faced in two scoreless innings against the Boston Red Sox on Tuesday in his first Grapefruit League start. He drew eight whiffs on 14 swings and five called strikes on his 32 pitches, giving up one single and no walks.
“I’m not expecting to struggle the first month,” Mlodzinski said. “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.”
After his slow start last year, Mlodzinski was demoted to Triple-A Indianapolis. Upon being called back up, he returned to the bullpen and went 3-2 with a 1.93 ERA and 1.02 WHIP in his final 18 appearances.
“Carmen did a fantastic job last year,” Pirates manager Don Kelly said. “Got off to a tough start starting, went down, made some adjustments, came back up and dominated. He did extremely well in the bullpen before starting again later in the season.”
What Kelly wants to see is whether Mlodzinski can maintain the velocity and movement on his pitches throughout the game, an indicator that he will still be effective in later innings so Kelly can trust him the second and third times through the opposing order. Mlodzinski has made it clear that as much as he wants to be a starter, he’ll do whatever is needed.
“I want the challenge. I want to be able to figure it out,” Mlodzinski said. “That’s the ultimate versatility, the ultimate role: to say that I can be a really good starter or be really good out of the bullpen. It’s like getting that last piece of the puzzle.
“The ultimate goal is to be a big league starter. That’s the pinnacle, to be a major league starting pitcher. That’s the hardest job of any pitcher, outside of some serious closers. That is the ultimate goal, so I’m always going to push for that. … I always communicate with the organization that I do want to win. That gives me more satisfaction than my own personal desire, but I do think what’s going to help us win is me pushing to get to that because that’s going to be the best version of myself.”
