A big-time Pirates bullpen reinforcement could soon be on his way back

Although the Pittsburgh Pirates' struggles agains the Tampa Bay Rays have had nothing to do with the bullpen, the unit still needs a ton of help if the team wants to stand a chance in 2025. Thankfully, help is on the way.

Hunter Stratton was a 16th-round pick by the Pittsburgh Pirates during the 2017 MLB Draft. Although he made his MLB debut in 2023, the Bucs ultimately decided to non-tender him that offseason. Luckily for them, Stratton agreed to re-up on a minor league contract to return for 2024. Despite never being a top prospect or dominating in the minor leagues, Stratton ended up being a great surprise.

He pitched to a 3.58 ERA, 3.27 FIP, and 1.17 WHIP across 37 2/3 innings. His unspectacular 20.9% K% was offset by a strong 4.4% walk rate, the 16th-lowest among any pitcher with at least 30 frames out of the bullpen. Stratton avoided hard contact as well, with just an 87.3 MPH exit velocity and 6.1% barrel rate. This also helped him put up a 0.72 HR/9 ratio.

Stratton used a mix of four pitches. That includes a cutter that sits in the low-90s, a mid-80s slider, and a mid-90s four-seam fastball. All three offerings graded out as above-average or better in the eyes of Stuff+ — especially his slider, which sat at a 121 mark. Not only was it his best pitch in terms of that metric, but it was his most effective pitch overall, inducing a 43% whiff rate and .093 xwOBA. That was the lowest xwOBA of any pitch in baseball last year that was used at least 25% of the time by a pitcher who threw at least 30 innings.

Unfortunately, Stratton’s auspicious rookie season was cut short by a ruptured patella tendon in his left knee in late August. His projected timeline was 7-10 months of recovery, putting his earliest return date in April and his latest in July. But Stratton was already throwing off the mound in January, and is already back in action having tossed one inning with Triple-A Indianapolis.

However, while Stratton healed quicker than most expected, he still wasn’t 100% ready to go at the start of spring training. The reliever only tossed a single inning, meaning he’d need to see a proper buildup at Triple-A before the Pirates slotted him back into the Major League 'pen.

Stratton would be a big help to the Pirates’ bullpen right now. We’ve seen how some of the Pirates’ late-inning arms, namely David Bednar and Colin Holderman, have done, and while it is only the second series of the season, their issues go back to the second half of last year. While Stratton wasn’t the go-to high-leverage pitcher for the Pirates in 2024, he also wasn’t a low-leverage pitcher either, with a 1.25 average leverage index.

Stratton should be back up in the Major Leagues before the end of April assuming his recovery continues on this trajectory and he lands somewhere in between 8-10 innings pitched at Triple-A.