Pittsburgh Pirates: Rotation Can Improve This Season

The Pittsburgh Pirates have some decent starters in the organization, so could the rotation eventually become a strength this year?

The Pittsburgh Pirates starting rotation was quite awful early into the year. They had a combined 6.17 ERA, 5.16 FIP, and 1.63 WHIP throughout the first month of the season. Although it’s a worthless stat in today’s game, it’s still unheard of that a team didn’t get their starters a single win throughout an entire month. The team’s starters overall still only have two wins.

As bad as the rotation has been throughout the early part of this year, could the rotation actually become a strong suit of the team by the end of the campaign? With the number of prospects coming up and arms currently on the roster, I don’t think it’s out of the question that they could become a solid group of starting pitchers.

Roansy Contreras is the apparent big upgrade. In his first start of 2022, the top prospect pitched five scoreless innings and had five strikeouts against the Colorado Rockies. He then followed this up by allowing just 2 runs in 5 innings against the San Diego Padres.

Contreras is a guy with ace potential and will finally get a chance to start regularly in the major leagues. But an arm that has flown under the radar so far this year has been JT Brubaker.

Brubaker has strung together a handful of good starts. In Brubaker’s past 40.1 innings, the right-hander has pitched to the tune of a 3.12 ERA, 3.56 FIP, and 1.24 WHIP. Brubaker has struck out just under a quarter of batters faced with a 24.7% rate, as well as having a solid 9.2% walk rate and sub-1.0 HR/9 (0.89 to be exact).

Brubaker has a 4.15 ERA on the year, but over a third of the earned runs he has surrendered this year came in the first two starts of the year. He gave up eight earned runs and has given up 22 earned runs in total.

Zach Thompson has also put together a few decent starts. His last 20 innings of work have yielded a very strong 2.00 ERA, 3.17 FIP, and 1.05 WHIP. Thompson has only struck out 18.8% of the batters he has faced in this small sample size, but he’s only allowed walks at a 6.3% rate. Plus, he’s only given up a single home run. You also can’t forget that Thompson was a surprise rookie last season. He pitched 75 innings and had a 3.24 ERA, 3.69 FIP, and 1.21 WHIP.

Jose Quintana has been a pleasant surprise as well. The southpaw was signed to a low-cost/low-risk one-year deal and has pitched 40.2 innings thus far. In that time, he has a 2.43 ERA, 3.26 FIP, and 1.18 WHIP. His strikeout and walk numbers aren’t great, having a 20.1% strikeout rate and 8.9% walk rate, but he’s only allowed two home runs all year. His 45.4% ground ball rate and exit velocity in the 83rd percentile have led to some outstanding results. I’d love to see Quintana stick with the Pittsburgh Pirates all season.

Now the fifth and final spot in the rotation has been a bit of a merry-go-round. Mitch Keller opened the season as a starting pitcher but has recently transitioned to a multi-inning role after the opener. It’s only been six innings, but he’s only allowed two earned runs and has six strikeouts. The Pirates don’t absolutely need a 5th starter and could keep rolling with the three-inning opener strategy they’ve deployed with Keller, Peters, and Kranick.

Speaking of Max Kranick, he’s another guy who could make some starts this year. He is currently on the injured list but has pitched five scoreless innings. Southpaw Trey McGough might make a few starts, possibly serving a similar role as Dillon Peters. McGough’s minor league numbers are inflated by one poor outing. Four of the five earned runs, all three home runs, and two of the four walks he has surrendered this year all came in one start on May 15th. There’s also Cody Bolton, who will likely be the next big pitching prospect to make his debut for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

The Pirates have four starters who aren’t awful. Contreras, Brubaker, Quintana, and Thompson? There are a lot worse groups of starters out there. Just ask how the Texas Rangers, Washington Nationals, and Baltimore Orioles starters have done so far. Sure, there is a lack of stability in one of the five spots, but the three-inning opener strat has worked decently for them so far, and they could always find a more traditional answer between Bolton, McGough, or Kranick. Nobody is saying that group of starters is going to the playoffs, but it’s solid group of pitchers and could win the Bucs more games than many expect.