Pirates make surprising rotation decision in wake of Thomas Harrington demotion

The Jared Jones injury truly hurts the Pittsburgh Pirates very badly entering the 2025 season. Fortunately, they have lots of depth in the starter area, but that group will remain untouched following the injury.

Derek Shelton annouced Carmen Mlodzinski as the fifth starter for the rotation on Monday. Even after the possibility of Thomas Harrington winning the spot, that was shut down as well and he will join a strong rotation in Indianapolis.

Harrington put together a solid spring training, but he won't start the year in Pittsburgh. He will make his final start today against the Twins and so far he put together a 2.70 ERA and 0.90 WHIP across 6 2/3 innings. Harrington turned a lot of heads this spring and could even solidify better numbers after his start.

Mlodzinski in the rotation comes with some major concerns, but the role is not new to him. He was initially drafted as a starting pitcher and started plenty of games in the minor leages before transitioning to a reliever. That only helped him, and he has a solid career 2.91 ERA, 3.64 FIP, 1.22 WHIP, 8.31 K/9 and .213 opponents batting average. He has been very successful in his major league career, especially in one-inning situations. But an issue that lingers with him becoming a starter is his injury history as he spent two stints on the IL in 2024.

Carmen Mlodzinski named the Pirates fifth starter following Thomas Harrington demotion

Maybe this is a good sign for Jones' eventual return this season. If they don't want to burn a year of service time on Harrington, that may indicate they expect Jones back in a reasonable amount of time as they look to fill the current void. At least we can hope that is the case. Harrington is also not on the 40-man roster, which will also be difficult to navigate with Ryan Borucki expected to be added before Opening Day.

Moving forward, we will likely see Mlodzinski on a pitch count, probably going 3-4 innings at a time followed by Caleb Ferguson piggybacking him. He was stretched out this spring as well, so that may be the plan heading into the season. This isn't the best solution, but the Pirates have good pitching depth, so if this can keep them afloat for the first 6-8 weeks of the season then it will have done the job.