Jared Jones’ reworked pitches could lead to a 2025 breakout for Pirates

The Pittsburgh Pirates opened the 2024 season with rookie right-hander Jared Jones in their rotation. Jones was a top-100 prospect heading into the year, and he definitely flashed the potential to be a great pitcher. Over the course of 121.1 innings, Jones worked to a solid 4.14 ERA, 4.00 FIP, and 1.19 WHIP. He had a healthy 26.2% K% with an above-average 7.7% BB%, albeit with a mediocre 1.33 HR/9 ratio.

Entering Year 2, Jones has shown some reworked pitches in spring training and even added a new pitch to his arsenal that could help him work deeper into games. Hopefully, this will lead to him taking another big step forward in 2025.

Among Jones' four-pitch mix, he used his changeup the least at just 6.5% last season. Although it wasn't his least effective pitch, opponents still had a .388 wOBA against it in 2024 (albeit with a stronger .327 xwOBA, suggesting some positive regression could be ahead). It sat at 90 MPH with 28.1 inches of drop and 11.9 inches of horizontal break.

Although the overall movement of his changeup hasn't changed, he's added about 1.5 MPH to the pitch. In his most recent game, Jones averaged out at 91.4 MPH with the pitch, with the slowest changeup he threw being 89.7 MPH, nearly his average velocity with the same pitch from last year.

Another pitch he appears to be reworking is his curveball. This was his worst pitch in 2024, as opponents had a .508 wOBA and .411 xwOBA against it. They punished it for an .870 slugging percentage and 17.6% barrel rate. Like his changeup, the overall movement on his curveball has not changed. He is still averaging out with around 50-52 inches of drop/6-7 inches of break. He has added another 1-1.5 MPH of velocity. More consistent location could also help Jones out in 2025.

Pirates' Jared Jones incorporating new pitches into mix at 2025 spring training

Jones also looks like he is incorporating a sinker into his pitch mix. So far, he's thrown seven sinkers during spring training. Baseball Savant states that he threw just a single sinker during all of 2024. However, based on its movement and velocity, it may have been a misread four-seam fastball. Jones is throwing his sinker around 94-96 MPH but with 18-19 inches of vertical drop and 13-14 inches of arm-side break.

Jones' incorporation of a new pitch into his pitch mix and reworking of his changeup and curveball could do him a lot of good. The right-hander was quite good at limiting opponents the first time he faced them, holding them to a .194/.278/.377 triple-slash and .277 wOBA. However, opponents then hit .257/.311/.468 with a .333 wOBA when facing him a second/third time in a game. 

So far into spring training, these pitches have looked decent. Jones will continue to sharpen up these reworked/new offerings and, hopefully, they'll help him produce better results in 2025. A reworked arsenal should help Jones keep batters off balance more frequently and allow him to mix things up differently as the game progresses, helping him pitch deeper into the starts.