It's reasonable to speculate Pirates are manipulating Bubba Chandler's service time

Pittsburgh Pirates prospect Bubba Chandler had his most dominant performance of the season in his latest start at Triple-A Indianapolis, tossing six no-hit innings while picking up five strikeouts and allowing just three walks Sunday against Toledo.

It was exactly the kind of dominance we have come to expect from the Pirates' top prospect, who has a 2-1 record over 10 starts this season with 11 earned runs over 43 2/3 innings pitched for a 2.27 ERA, 61 strikeouts to 20 walks, and an opposing batting average of .178. In addition to being the No. 1 prospect in the Pirates organization, he is the No. 2 prospect in all of baseball according to MLB Pipeline.

And yet, despite his continued dominance, Chandler is still at Triple-A. Meanwhile, fellow pitching prospects Mike Burrows and Braxton Ashcraft have earned call-ups to Pittsburgh over the past few weeks, making the optics even worse (though, admittedly, bad optics is something the Pirates should be used to by now). What more does Chandler have to do to prove he's Major League-ready?

At this point, Pirates are obviously manipulating Bubba Chandler's service time

Pirates general manager Ben Cherington has cited everything from player development to roster logistics when it comes to reasons Chandler has yet to get the call-up to the big leagues. While there may be some truth to both of those reasons, Chandler is the type of player you make room for on your Major League roster, especially when he's accomplished just about everything that a pitcher can at the Triple-A level.

Given the Pirates' penchant for pinching pennies, it is getting harder to ignore the possibility that Pittsburgh might be using the Super Two rule to delay the promotion of one of their top prospects and avoid an early arbitration raise in the process.

Exploitation of the Super Two rule is essentially a form of service time manipulation that impacts when a player becomes eligible for salary arbitration, as opposed to free agency. If Chandler were to be promoted today, he would likely qualify for Super Two status after the 2027 season, meaning that he would enter arbitration a year earlier and the Pirates would have to pay him a higher salary over a longer period of time. If the Pirates wait until mid-June to call him up, they can potentially save millions.

Though they would never admit to it, such a move would be painfully on brand for the Pirates. After all, this is the same team that released Rowdy Tellez last year when he was just four plate appearances away from earning a $200,000 bonus.

A similarly on-brand move would be to wait until next week, when the Pirates return from their west coast road trip for a nine-game home stand. Chandler's debut will sell tickets, and team owner Bob Nutting will surely want to cash in.

Either way, it wouldn't be at all surprising if the reasons Chandler hasn't yet been promoted were purely financial in nature. But the more he continues to dominate Triple-A hitting, the harder it's going to be for the Pirates to keep him from The Show.

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