Pirates prospect's ridiculous Aroldis Chapman streak should secure him a roster spot

The most shocking performance from the Pittsburgh Pirates’ farm system has come from relief pitching prospect Brandan Bidois. Prior to this season, he was an oft-injured, hard-throwing hurler who could never seem to string together a solid stretch. But he has finally had a healthy season, and has been unhittable (quite literally), drawing comparisons to former Pirates reliever Aroldis Chapman’s recent hot streak.

With two more no-hit frames on Tuesday afternoon, Bidois extended his hitless streak to 64 straight opponents. The last time he allowed a hit was on July 29, and he has now reached the equivalent of two no-hitters, with 18 hitless frames pitched. In that time, he has allowed no earned runs and has struck out 23 opponents while allowing eight walks.

This outstanding stretch has given Bidois some very impressive numbers on the year. The right-handed reliever has a sub-1.00 ERA (0.78) and WHIP (0.82), with a 2.41 FIP in 57.2 innings from Bradenton through Indianapolis. He has gotten 30.6% of opponents to go down on strikes and has not allowed a home run this season.

The only downside is that walks are still an issue for Bidois, with an 11.9% free pass percentage. He uses a four-pitch mix, including a mid-to-upper-90s four-seam fastball, a mid-80s slider, a low-80s curveball, and a low-90s changeup.

Relief ace Brandan Bidois has his a ridiculous new level for Pirates

Bidois' hitless streak draws parallels to another former Pirates flamethrower in the form of Aroldis Chapman. After wrapping up his 2024 season with the Bucs, Chapman signed a one-year contract with the Boston Red Sox and is in the midst of a career year in his age-37 campaign. Over his last 17 appearances, 50 batters faced, and 14.2 IP, he has not allowed a hitter to reach via base hit. Chapman currently has the best ERA and ERA+ of his career (by a mile), his best K%-BB% since his days with the Cincinnati Reds, and is tied for the most bWAR in a single season of his career.

The best news to come out of all of this is that Bidois has all but punched his ticket for a 40-man roster spot this offseason. Bidois signed with the Pirates out of Australia in September 2019. He has been eligible to be selected in the Rule 5 draft before, but was passed up. Now, it’s hard to envision a player with stuff this good and this level of sustained dominance to conclude his 2025 season being left exposed. He’d certainly be one of the top picks of the draft if the Pirates refused to commit to him. 

With the way Bidois is pitching right now, it’s not even out of the question that he gets a brief MLB cameo in the last weeks of September. He has been outright dominant this season and unhittable for over a month now. He’d likely be an upgrade over Yohan Ramirez and would definitelyproduce better numbers than Colin Holderman. Whether or not he gets a late-season cameo has yet to be seen, but it has been a very promising season for Bidois, and his hitless streak should put him into conversations about how the Pirates will go about building their bullpen to open 2026.