Pirates hint at Carmen Mlodzkinski plan with pitching announcement for Dodgers series

The Pittsburgh Pirates haven't officially removed Carmen Mlodzinski from the rotation, but their pitching plans for this weekend may be telling us everything we need to know.

Pittsburgh will open its nine-game road trip with Bubba Chandler on the mound Friday against the Los Angeles Dodgers, followed by Jared Jones on Saturday. But the Pirates have yet to name a starter for Sunday’s series finale, listing the spot as TBA.

That ordinarily would have belonged to Mlodzinski. Considering how poorly his brief return to the rotation has gone, leaving his name off the schedule at least raises the possibility that the Pirates have seen enough. And frankly, they should have.

Mlodzinski was hit hard again in Monday’s 8-5 loss to the Detroit Tigers, allowing four runs on eight hits and a walk in only three innings. It continued a brutal stretch since the Pirates moved him out of the bullpen and into a pseudo-starter role following Mitch Keller’s season-ending injury.

Across three appearances in that role, Mlodzinski has surrendered 13 earned runs in 7.1 innings, good for a 15.95 ERA. His starts have forced Pittsburgh to turn to its bullpen early, while routinely playing from behind. There is little justification for continuing to force it.

Pirates pitching plan for Dodgers series suggests Carmen Mlodzinski experiment may be coming to an end

Sunday would be an especially strange time to give the Mlodzinski experiment another chance.

The Dodgers are scheduled to counter Pittsburgh’s still-unknown pitching plan with Blake Snell, following Yoshinobu Yamamoto on Friday and Tarik Skubal on Saturday. That already leaves the Pirates with virtually no margin for error in a series against the defending World Series champions. Handing Mlodzinski another start simply because it is technically his turn would accomplish nothing.

Pittsburgh has other options, even if none is particularly ideal. The Pirates could employ a true bullpen game, use an opener in front of a bulk pitcher or give another arm an opportunity to show whether he can handle the rotation spot for the remainder of the season.

Any of those choices would at least represent an attempt to find a solution. Continuing with Mlodzinski would merely be repeating an experiment that has already produced a convincing answer.

The Pirates haven’t announced what they are doing Sunday yet. But by declining to announce Mlodzinski alongside Chandler and Jones, they may have offered the first indication that his latest stint in the rotation is nearing its end.

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