3 moves the Pittsburgh Pirates can make to instantly improve the pitching staff

The Pittsburgh Pirates’ pitching staff has been the best part of the team so far this season. Aside from a few blow-up outings from Colin Holderman, David Bednar, and Kyle Nicolas, they’ve definitely held their own and then some. But while the Pirates’ pitching is their strength - and a good one, at that - there are still ways the Pirates could dramatically improve their pitching staff. With how much young pitching talent is in the upper levels of the system, the Pirates could make these three moves tomorrow if they wanted.

Pirates should promote Bubba Chandler, bump Carmen Mlodzinski to the bullpen

It’s time to give Bubba Chandler the promotion to Major League Baseball. There isn’t much left he can do at Triple-A. Between late 2024 and the start of this season, Chandler has tossed 59.2 innings in a dozen starts. He owns an ERA well below 2.00 at 1.66, has struck out a whopping 34.8% of opponents, and has dished out a walk only 9% of the time. Chandler currently has the best K%-BB% in Triple-A this season at 28.4% and has the third-lowest ERA at 1.44 after his most recent dominant performance.

Chandler has done more than enough to make that next step. When the Pirates do promote the right-hander, they should bump Carmen Mlodzinski to the bullpen. Mlodzinski was a reliever in 2023 and 2024, but wanted to try his hand at starting games in 2025. Unfortunately, he hasn’t delivered, allowing 13 earned runs in 22 innings across five starts. He hasn’t gotten hit exceptionally hard, with only a 6.5% barrel rate, but has only struck out 18 batters with nine walks allowed.

Mlodzinski is showing why he was a reliever for the first two seasons of his MLB career. Batters own a paltry .195/.267/.242 triple-slash the first time they face Mlodzinski. He’s yet to allow an earned run in the first two innings of any of his starts. But in innings three and four, Mlodzinski has allowed a whopping 13 earned runs in just 9.2 IP. When batters get a second crack at Mlodzinski, they have a .452/.489/.691 triple-slash against him. For reference, Mlodzinski holds batters to an OPS nearly identical to that of Mario Mendoza, who had a career .507 OPS. When batters face him a second time, their OPS goes up higher than that of Aaron Judge in 2022, when he set the American League single-season home run record.

Promoting Chandler and sending Mlodzinski to the bullpen takes out two birds with one stone; the Pirates make an upgrade to the rotation, and an upgrade in the bullpen. Mlodzinski can work as a seventh/eighth inning arm, similarly to previous seasons, while Chandler can (hopefully) dominate as he has in the minor leagues.

Pirates should send Kyle Nicolas down, replace him with Hunter Stratton

Many questioned the Pirates’ decision to send Kyle Nicolas to Triple-A to open 2025. He had a 3.95 ERA with a 107 Stuff+ in 54.2 innings last season. Despite Nicolas’ struggles with location (with a 12.8% walk rate) and limiting hard contact (with a 90 MPH exit velocity and 8.5% barrel rate), he was one of the few relievers in the Pirates’ 2024 bullpen who showed some promise.

However, it looks like they were right after all on their initial choice. Control and command issues from last year haven’t just persisted; they’ve gotten worse. Nicolas has already walked five batters in just 4.1 innings. If he’s not missing outside the zone, he is also missing in the zone. He’s also allowed seven hits, including a home run. Between his lack of accuracy in the zone and leaving it in hittable places in the zone, Nicolas has allowed seven earned runs.

Nicolas should be replaced with Hunter Stratton. In a Pirates rookie class with hurlers like Paul Skenes and Jared Jones, Stratton got buried, but still put up strong numbers, including a 3.58 ERA, 4.4% walk rate, and 6.1% barrel percentage. He didn’t have a great strikeout rate, sitting at 20.4%, but this was the only negative from his rookie year, performance-wise.

Stratton would have opened 2025 in the Pirates’ bullpen had it not been for a ruptured patella tendon in his knee in August of last season. While Stratton only tossed a single inning in spring training, he is fully stretched out at this point. He’s thrown over 200 pitches and just over 11 innings at Triple-A. For reference, in 2024, when Stratton broke camp and opened the year as a rookie on the Pirates’ Opening Day roster, he pitched seven innings with 101 pitches thrown.

Stratton proved last year that he could be a big league reliever. Nicolas hasn’t done so yet. While Nicolas has good stuff, he needs to control it better. Putting Stratton in the bullpen would be a significant upgrade. He, alongside Mlodzinski, could really help the Pirates’ late-inning situation.

Pirates need to promote Hunter Barco, make a decision with Bailey Falter

Back in March, it was a bold prediction to say that Hunter Barco would be up by Memorial Day, but that doesn't seem as bold after his start to the 2025 season. The Southpaw was sent to Altoona to open the year, and he’s been nearly untouchable. He has since opened 2025 with 20.2 straight scoreless innings. 

That’s arguably not even the best part about Barco's rise. He’s done that while striking out 30 opposing batters and walking just four. His K%-BB% clocks in at an elite 34.7%. For reference, the highest K%-BB% among all pitchers in the minor leagues in 2024 with at least 15 starts was Texas Rangers’ prospect Alejandro Rosario at 33.1%. At 24 years old, Barco could skip Double-A and go straight to the majors.

If the Pirates opt to do this, he should replace the other left-hander currently holding a rotation spot. Bailey Falter has not done well to open 2025. In 30.1 innings, Falter owns a poor 5.93 ERA, 1.35 WHIP, and 4.84 FIP. It’s a far drop from the 4.43 ERA, 4.30 FIP, and 1.29 WHIP he produced across 142.2 innings last year, but the red flags were already there.

Falter had a 4.71 xFIP and 4.91 SIERA. He had a solid 7.6% walk rate and 1.07 HR/9 ratio but was prone to hard contact. Falter allowed opponents to have a 90.1 MPH exit velocity and 8.9% barrel rate against him. Racking up high strikeout totals wasn’t a common occurrence either, with just a 16.7% K% and a rank in the eighth percentile of whiff rate at 19.6%.

The Pirates have multiple routes they could take with Falter if they push him out of the rotation for Barco. They could trade him, given that he’s still only 28 and goes into his first year of arbitration this offseason. He also has better underlying ERA estimators than last year. They could also move him to the bullpen, creating even more depth among the relievers. Whatever choice they make with Falter, Barco deserves a promotion, and if Chandler replaces Mlodzinski, then Barco should replace Falter.