To Pirates, putting top pitching prospect Bubba Chandler in bullpen 'will be good for him'

When word spread in the Pittsburgh Pirates clubhouse that Bubba Chandler would be making his major-league debut out of the bullpen instead of the starting rotation, Mike Burrows wasn’t surprised.

A 22-year-old right-hander who is baseball’s top pitching prospect, Chandler has started 83 of his 89 career games in the minor leagues, but the Pirates plan to use him in a bulk relief role.

“I think it’s going to help him more than anything,” Burrows told TribLive. “I think it’s good to get innings up here, to see the speed of play and the way the game ebbs and flows up here because it’s definitely different than Triple-A. Obviously, it’s the same game. But there’s better attention to detail up here, so getting used to that and getting a role any way you can to finish out this year will be good for him.”

Burrows speaks from experience. He made his major-league debut last Sept. 28 at the New York Yankees by pitching 3 ¹⁄₃ innings in relief of 2024 National League Rookie of the Year Paul Skenes in the penultimate game of the season, allowing two runs on two hits and three walks with two strikeouts while facing 14 batters in the 9-4 win.

That Chandler isn’t going straight into a starting rotation that is in a state of flux is something of a surprise. Beyond Skenes and Mitch Keller, the Pirates are mixing and matching with Burrows, Braxton Ashcraft, Carmen Mlodzinski and Johan Oviedo.

Chandler was expected to slot into the starting rotation by June after dominating Triple-A Indianapolis through the first two months. He anticipated a call-up after 12 starts, when he was 2-1 with a 2.49 ERA, 1.13 WHIP and 70 strikeouts against 22 walks through 50 2/3 innings. He took a no-hitter into the seventh inning against Toledo on May 24.

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But the No. 7 prospect by MLB Pipeline and No. 15 by Baseball America battled command issues that led to high pitch counts and shorter outings. Over his past 13 outings, Chandler has pitched six innings twice. He didn’t complete four innings in six starts, including his most recent start Aug. 16 at Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, when Chandler allowed four runs on six hits and five walks with five strikeouts in 3 1/3.

In three starts in August, Chandler has a 7.50 ERA, 2.33 WHIP and .377 batting average against. His season ERA is 4.05, and he led Indianapolis in strikeouts (121) and walks (53). The key for Chandler will be to command his four-seam fastball, which touches triple digits.

“Obviously, the velocity is there,” Burrows said. “He’s got really good stuff. Just expect some fireworks. He’s going to be throwing hard for sure. You’ve got a lot of energy and adrenaline in those first couple (outings), so I’d imagine he’s going to have a lot of that. It’s going to be about reining that in and trying to throw 101 down the middle.”

Where Skenes and Jared Jones dazzled in their starting debuts last year, the Pirates have found success this season by easing some of their top pitching prospects into the majors through long relief roles.

Thomas Harrington gave up seven runs on six hits and four walks with two strikeouts in his first MLB start, a 7-0 loss at Tampa Bay on April 1, but fared far better in piggybacking Mlodzinski for the final four innings of an 8-4 win against St. Louis six days later.

Pirates manager Don Kelly pointed to Ashcraft as a prime example of how the bullpen can allow a pitcher to adjust to the majors. Ashcraft started his career in the bullpen, going 3-2 with a 3.56 ERA and 1.48 WHIP in 16 appearances before making three starts, where he’s posted a 1.59 ERA and 0.71 WHIP in 11 1/3 innings.

“Just getting him up here in the big leagues, putting him in that role, we saw Ashcraft really thrive in it. He got his feet wet in the bullpen and had some really big outings,” Kelly said. “To have him in a situation like that, where he can go out and work in the ’pen, things at the big-league level, and to be able to learn from the guys up here, to learn the staff and the players and get feedback from the major-league game is going to be really, really good for him and for us.”

Kelly noted that Ashcraft tossed three scoreless innings at Arizona in his debut and pitched the final 1 1/3 innings in a 2-1 win over Philadelphia on June 8 to earn his first MLB victory. Ashcraft made a spot start in a bullpen game at Milwaukee on June 23 but also pitched in multiple-inning relief appearances and saw some high-leverage opportunities.

“I think it made me a better pitcher and will continue to make me a better pitcher because it’s different,” Ashcraft said. “You grow up doing one thing your entire life, and the game kind of falls into some sort of monotony. Having something like that where you’re forced to be in a different role, something that’s unfamiliar, you respond one of two ways: You either compete your tail off or you don’t. Knowing Bubba, the person that he is, he’s an unbelievable competitor. I have no doubt in my mind that it will be good for him.”

Ashcraft and Chandler were football and baseball stars in high school who chose professional baseball over college football. They pitched together at Double-A Altoona and Indianapolis, so Ashcraft is confident the competitor in Chandler will rise to the challenge.

“It’s cool to see guys ascend into the pitchers that they aspire to be,” Ashcraft said of Chandler. “I think that in that situation, there’s a lot of emotions. There was for me. But, ultimately, it’s just about the opportunity. I fully expect Bubba to be confident in that, excel in that role, knowing that the end goal is to be a starting pitcher.”

Like Burrows, Ashcraft expressed excitement to see what Chandler can do in the majors, no matter the role.

“We saw what he was doing at the beginning of the year and even through now, he’s still Bubba,” Ashcraft said. “I just think that you fall into a routine of expecting a guy to be as good as he is, so you’re not really surprised when he does the things that he does. I’m excited to see him get up to the big leagues and dominate these hitters like he has done throughout his minor-league career.”