3 Pirates pitchers that could take Johan Oviedo’s roster spot

The Pittsburgh Pirates traded RHP Johan Oviedo to the Boston Red Sox days before the start of the 2025 Winter Meetings. While Oviedo missed all of 2024 with Tommy John surgery and the first four months of the 2025 season with a lat injury, the right-hander has been one of the Pirates’ go-to pitchers when he is healthy. He made 32 starts in 2023, and when he returned to action in August 2025, he had the fourth most innings pitched among Pirates pitchers down the stretch. 

Although he has been a key part of the Pirates’ pitching staff when healthy, he likely would not have served as significant a role in the future as he did during 2023. With a rotation headlined by Paul Skenes, Braxton Ashcraft, Mitch Keller, and Bubba Chandler, Oviedo would have headed into spring training with an outside shot at the final rotation spot.

Even if he'd ended up in the bullpen, that’s a good chunk of innings the Pirates are losing after his departure, with plenty of players who could take that roster spot and fill the void.

The Pirates have plenty of pitchers who can step up and take Johan Oviedo's roster spot.

Hunter Barco

Hunter Barco is the most obvious candidate to take Oviedo’s roster spot. Last year, he put up a 2.81 ERA, 3.54 FIP, and 1.20 WHIP over 99.1 innings between Double-A Altoona and Triple-A Indianapolis. The rookie left-hander punched out 27.8% of batters this past season with a 29.4% whiff rate at Indy. The downside to Barco’s season was his 11.8% walk rate, but he still posted a strong enough season to make his MLB debut. He only pitched three innings, but didn’t allow a walk or any earned runs, striking out a trio of opponents.

Barco is a top ten prospect in the Pirates’ system, with MLB Pipeline even going as far as to rank him the 78th best prospect in baseball after an impressive scoreless streak at the start of the season. While starting a high-ranking prospect out of the bullpen may raise some questions, it’s been done before (even by the Pirates) with successful results.

Plus, this would let the Pirates keep Barco in the major leagues, even if it’s not a starting pitching role, rather than sending a top 100 prospect back to Triple-A to begin the season.

Thomas Harrington

Thomas Harrington may not seem like an obvious choice to take Oviedo’s spot on the Pirates’ roster. 2025 was a rough year for Harrington. He spent most of the year at Triple-A, where he owned a 5.34 ERA, 5.55 FIP, and 1.31 WHIP over 96 innings. His 21.7% K% wasn’t horrible, and he had a solid 8% walk rate, but he was extremely prone to the long ball, with a 1.88 HR/9 and an exit velocity of 90.5 MPH. Harrington also pitched 8.2 innings in the major leagues this year, struggling badly and allowing 15 earned runs. It was a small sample size, and one of the games he pitched in was in Coors Field.

With how poorly Harrington performed in 2025, many probably forget he entered the season as a consensus top 100 prospect after a strong 2024 season, so it’s not as if he has no potential to improve. Still, given how much he struggled last year, the Pirates could alleviate some pressure by putting him into the swingman role to give him a chance to rebound.

A swingman role would probably be better for his development, compared to what the Pirates did with him this year. That would also mean the Pirates wouldn't have to stash a current top-100 prospect in the bullpen in Barco.

Brandan Bidois

The Pirates recently added Australian right-hander Brandan Bidois to the 40-man roster to protect him from the Rule 5 draft after his outstanding 2025 season. The relief prospect put up a microscopic 0.74 ERA, 0.80 WHIP, and a 2.44 FIP over 61 innings last year. Bidois got 30% of batters to strike out against him, and did not allow a single home run. Bidois has plus stuff, but below-average command, as he dished out a free pass 11.7% of the time. Bidois ended the season on an absolute tear, allowing no earned runs, a single hit, and 25 Ks over his final 21.1 innings.

Bidois is far more of a traditional reliever and does not project as a starter. He has a deep injury history, so even though he has a four-pitch mix, he is likely limited in his workload. Despite the injury risk, Bidois isn’t unfamiliar with pitching more than one inning at a time. 17 of his 40 appearances in 2025 went two innings, and 27 saw him pitch more than a single frame. He may not be able to handle a workload like Harrington or Barco can, but he has the potential to give the Pirates 60-70 innings and eventually work himself into a higher leverage role.