The Pittsburgh Pirates Need A Starting Pitcher For Saturday

With Chad Kuhl having been optioned to Triple-A to make room on the active roster for Jameson Taillon, the Pittsburgh Pirates now need a starting pitcher for Saturday’s contest against the Philadelphia Phillies. Who should it be?

Yesterday, the Pittsburgh Pirates activated right-handed starting pitcher Jameson Taillon off of the disabled list. In order to make room for Taillon on the active roster, Chad Kuhl was optioned back to Triple-A Indianapolis. This leaves the Pittsburgh Pirates with just four starting pitchers on their current 25-man roster.

Due to off days the Pittsburgh Pirates will only need five starting pitchers a handful of times between now and the end of August. However, one of those times is this upcoming Saturday against the Philadelphia Phillies. So this leaves the question, who will the Pittsburgh Pirates hand the ball to at 4:15 on Saturday afternoon?

In my opinion the Pittsburgh Pirates should have an easy decision to make about who to start Saturday. They should recall right-handed pitching phenom Tyler Glasnow. Since he made his Major League debut against the St. Louis Cardinals just before the All-Star Break, Glasnow does not have much more to gain from remaining in Triple-A.

In that one Major League start Tyler Glasnow was charged with four earned runs in 5 1/3 innings pitched. However, two of those runs were inherited runners that Arquimedes Caminero allowed to score and the first run came on a wild pitch that should have been charged a passed ball. Glasnow pitched better than his final line, allowing just three hits, two walks, and striking out five. 

Since this start for the Pittsburgh Pirates on July 7th Tyler Glasnow has started one game. This came on Monday night at Triple-A Indianapolis when Glasnow allowed three runs while striking out nine in six innings pitched. This means that Glasnow’s next scheduled start for Triple-A would indeed be this Saturday.

For this reason, I am expecting the Pittsburgh Pirates to start Tyler Glasnow against the Philadelphia Phillies on Saturday. If that does indeed happen then the Pirates would pitch Gerrit Cole, Tyler Glasnow, and Jameson Taillon against the Phillies this weekend. Finally, the big three that the Pirates’ front office and fans have dreamed of seeing that past few seasons would be anchoring the Pirate starting rotation.

This would leave the Pittsburgh Pirates needed to make a roster move for Saturday, and they would most likely drop someone from their bullpen. The Pirate bullpen currently has eight pitchers instead of the traditional seven, so most likely one of the relievers would go. Even though A.J. Schugel and Jared Hughes each have options left I do not think either of them would be optioned to Triple-A.

Currently, the Pirate bullpen has two long relievers in Juan Nicasio and Jon Niese. I believe some sort of move would be made with one of these two pitchers. It has been reported countless times the Pirates are shopping Jon Niese, so a trade is always possible. So is Niese or Nicasio being designated for assignment. Personally, I would rather see Niese dumped than Nicasio because I believe Nicasio brings value as a short reliever that Niese does not.

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It remains to be seen who will start for the Pittsburgh Pirates on Saturday afternoon against the Philadelphia Phillies. However, in my opinion, it should be Tyler Glasnow. Also, I am expecting it to be Tyler Glasnow. Be pumped everyone, because the big three of Gerrit Cole, Tyler Glasnow, and Jameson Taillon is finally here.