Free agents and internal options for Pirates to fill out the rest of their rotation

The biggest strength of the Pittsburgh Pirates’ 2025 roster looks to be their rotation. 2024 Rookie of the Year and Cy Young finalist Paul Skenes will pitch a full season. He has a strong supporting cast, including another 2024 rookie standout, Jared Jones, and 2023 All-Star Mitch Keller. These three make one of the most formidable 1-through-3s in baseball, but how can the Pirates fill out the rest of their rotation?

Internal Options for Pirates to fill out 2025 rotation

According to FanGraphs’ Roster Resource depth charts, Bailey Falter and Johan Oviedo are currently penciled into the final two rotation spots. After a poor first game of the season, Falter turned things around and put up a 4.16 ERA, 4.11 FIP, and 1.27 WHIP the rest of the way. Excluding that initial dud, the lefty had a poor 16.7% strikeout percentage, but an above-average 6.7% walk rate and 0.98 HR/9.

Despite the solid numbers, Falter had some worrying underlying stats, including both a below-average exit velocity (90.3 MPH) and barrel rate induced (8.8%), along with both an unimpressive xFIP (4.63) and SIERA (4.84). Granted, it was Falter’s first season pitching at least 90 innings in the Major Leagues. He is also only going into his age-28 campaign.

Oviedo’s case is more complicated. The last time he pitched, he was a solid starter, working to a 4.31 ERA, 4.49 FIP, and 1.37 WHIP. While he had a mediocre 20.2% K% and 10.6% walk rate, he held opponents to an 0.96 HR/9 rate. He was also about league average in the batted ball department, with an 88.5 MPH exit velocity and 7.6% barrel rate induced. Oviedo did this across 32 starts and 177.2 innings pitched. It wasn’t the best season ever, but he still had 17 starts where he went 5+ innings and allowed two or fewer earned runs. Plus, it was only his first extended look as a starter in the Major Leagues.

Unfortunately, that was in 2023. Oviedo underwent Tommy John surgery in December 2023, completely eliminating him for 2024. Chances arethe Pirates are not going to give him 30+ starts and 180+ innings right out of the gate. Unless the Pirates sign someone, this could easily open the door for a top prospect like Bubba Chandler.

Chandler pitched 119.2 innings between Double-A and Triple-A in 2024, working to a strong 3.08 ERA, 3.10 FIP, and 1.02 WHIP. He only handed out a free pass 8.6% of the time, struck out over 30% of batters he faced (30.9%) and allowed home runs at an impressive 0.68-per-9 rate. The young right-hander is heading into the season as one of the best prospects in all of baseball. MLB Pipeline has him ranked at No. 15, while Baseball America has him at No. 7, even higher than Paul Skenes was ranked a year ago.

Although some may reasonably doubt the Pirates will open the season with Chandler in the rotation, they did go into 2024 with Jared Jones in their starting five. Chandler is also eligible for theprospect promotion incentive. If he wins Rookie of the Year or finishes top three in Cy Young voting before he hits arbitration, the Pirates will receive an extra draft pick.

The Pirates have some other internal options worth noting, too. Thomas Harrington is the Pirates’ second-best pitching prospect behind Chandler. He also made it to Triple-A last season. Both Mike Burrows and Braxton Ashcraft have primarily worked as starters throughout the minor leagues, but given their injury history, may not be great options to open the year in the rotation. The Pirates were reportedly going to try and stretch Caleb Ferguson out in spring training, but it may not be for anything more than an opener role, rather than a traditional starting pitcher role.

Free Agents the Pirates Can Still Entertain for Rotation

The best starter still on the free agent market is Nick Pivetta. Pivetta put up a 4.14 ERA, 4.07 FIP, and 1.13 WHIP in 2024. The veteran struck out his fair share of opponents, with a 28.9% K%, while also putting up a career-low 5.9% walk rate. However, opponents regularly hit Pivetta hard. He induced an 89.4 MPH exit velocity, 9.8% barrel rate, and 1.73 HR/9 ratio. However, he did have an xFIP and SIERA of 3.50 or lower, indicating that there may still be something to be unlocked here. Still, it’s unlikely the Pirates invest this much into the back of their rotation.

Longtime division rival Lance Lynn is one free agent who has been (unofficially) linked to the Pirates in speculation only. Despite his advancing age, as 2024 was his age-37 season, Lynn still put up solid numbers for the St. Louis Cardinals. He put up a 3.84 ERA, 4.31 FIP, and 1.34 WHIP across 117.1 innings. He had roughly league-average peripherals, including a 21.3% strikeout rate, 8.6% walk rate, and 1.23 HR/9, but he did have a below-average 88.9 MPH exit velocity and 10.5% barrel rate.

However, the Pirates have not been linked to Lynn as a starter fit, as fellow writer Baron Dionis recently covered.

The Athletic recently named Lynn as a perfect fit for the Pirates’ bullpen rather than their starting pitching depth chart. Lynn has reportedly gotten some attention this winter from other teams as a late-inning reliever, though he noted on Foul Territory this week that the Pirates haven't called yet. This is definitely interesting in theory, though, since Lynn hasn’t seen consistent work out of the bullpen since his 2011 cup of coffee. Even then, he only appeared in 16 games out of the 'pen.

Since then, he has made the occasional cameo as a reliever, but that represents the extent of his bullpen work during the regular season. For now, it's probably best thatneither party has expressed strong mutual interest in a contract as of right now.

Ben Cherington loves his veteran lefties, and there are definitely a few decent ones out out there. The best of the bunch is Andrew Heaney. Heaney just wrapped up a two-year stint with the Texas Rangers. Last season, he put up a 4.28 ERA, 4.04 FIP, and 1.25 WHIP across 160 frames. He had a 22.9% K% and 1.23 HR/9, pairing them with a career-best 5.9% walk rate. Unfortunately, Heaney was struck for an 89.6 MPH exit velocity and 8.3% barrel percentage.

Another lefty still on the market is Jose Quintana. Quintana spent the 2022 season with the Pirates, and was traded to the Cardinals at the deadline for the aforementioned Johan Oviedo. He then signed a two-year pact with the New York Mets and was a solid arm for them. In 2024, he put up a 3.75 ERA, 4.56 FIP, and 1.25 WHIP. Quintana held opponents to an 88 MPH exit velocity and 6.7% barrel rate, but had a roughly league average 1.16 HR/9. He paired that with an 18.8% K% and 8.8% BB%.

Alternatively, they could sign a starter/reliever swingman type. The best available are Spencer Turnbull and Jakob Junis. The Pirates might toy with the idea of making Ferguson a starter this pre-season, but signing Turnbull or Junis would allow the Pirates to have a pitcher who can go between the bullpen and rotation when needed. These two also would not have to be stretched out like Ferguson.

Past this group, their internal options are likely better than what’s left on the free agent market. Kyle Gibson could pose an upgrade over Bailey Falter, but given his age and previous work in the recent past, the Pirates could allocate their resources better elsewhere. The Pirates could sign a pitcher like Patrick Corbin, Cal Quantrill, Julio Teheran, or Alex Wood to a minor-league contract, but none would be upgrades over the current depth chart, and would serve solely as Triple-A depth options.