Pirates insider reveals the worst possible Jared Jones injury update

Just when the Pirates thought their season couldn't get any worse, it did. After many weeks of rehab, it is now likely that Jared Jones will be getting Tommy John surgery to repair his torn Ulnar Collateral Ligament, according to John Perotto of Pittsburgh Baseball Now on Sunday evening.

This is a big blow, as Jones had begun his throwing program two weeks ago and was expected rejoin the Pirates around the All-Star Break. The initial diagnosis during spring training was a sprain of the UCL, and he could have decided to get surgery then, but Jones and the organization instead decided to try rehabbing through it.

All that decision did was set his rumored surgery back about two months, likely taking him out of the 2026 season. By the time Jones is back with the team, he will be 25-turning-26 during that summer of 2027. Jones getting hurt in spring training meant nothing but bad news for the organization, but now the worst has reportedly come of it.

Jared Jones will reportedly get Tommy John surgery and miss the rest of the season and likely 2026.

Jones was one of the top young arms in the league, complementing Paul Skenes as one of the best duos in baseball. This keeps Mitch Keller as the No. 2 starter in the rotation and puts a lot of pressure on the Pirates to get Bubba Chandler up to Pittsburgh.

Chandler's debut is inevitable, but the Pirates are keeping him down to protect that extra year of service time and limit his innings, which will likely eliminate any chance of him winning the Rookie of the Year award. Once he debuts, it is very unlikely that he goes back down, and he could now overtake Jones as Skenes' running mate.

This injury update truly does hurt the Pirates organization. Fortunately, they have a ton of young depth to work with in the farm system. Jones was expected to be a big piece of this rotation for the next few years, but now he likely won't pitch in Pittsburgh until 2027. Let's see if the young pitchers can step up for the rest of 2025 and 2026 to pitch in place of Jones. Pittsburgh needs all the help that they can get at this point.