Pirates reveal potential new use for top prospect Thomas Harrington vs. Cardinals

Following Thomas Harrington's first career start, the Pirates put the rookie into the bullpen. This will allow him to get more low-leverage opportunities as he adjusts to major league hitters, which is exactly what he got to do on Monday night.

In Game 1 against the Cardinals, Harrington got his first chance out of the bullpen, piggybacking a solid start from Carmen Mlodzinski. He was able to toss four innings, striking out five, and allowing four hits, a walk, and three runs to earn his first major league save.

The rookie experienced some growing pains, allowing two home runs, but in the process he dropped his ERA to 10.13. There were some positives to take away from his outing, especially in the continued improvements we saw in his stuff; he generated nine swings and misses. Harrington has gotten a fair amount of strikeouts throughout his development process (261 in 244.2 minor league innings), but that has not exactly been his game, so what he did Monday night in terms of leveling up was a good sign.

Thomas Harrington picks up first career save in second career outing with Pirates.

Part of Harrington's game throughout the minors has been inducing lots of soft contact and throwing off batters. Last season in Triple-A, opponents' average exit velocity against him was 86.5 mph, and their hard-hit rate sat at 32.6%. Keeping this type of game up will be the key to Harrington staying in Pittsburgh. This new role can give him additional opportunities to find himself.

Harrington ending up in the bullpen was an unexpected move, but it seems as if the Pirates only went with a six-man rotation for the first week of the season. Since they decided to go with the rookie to fill that temporary gap, they missed out on a chance to save a year of service time. That's fine, but it is uncharacteristic for the Pirates to do that. Jared Jones is an exception, but we saw such manipulation happen with Paul Skenes a year ago and many other prospects over the years.

Now that he is in the bullpen, Harrington's role is unclear. Maybe they want to utilize him as a piggyback starter to Mlodzinski at all times. If it shapes up like it did last night, the Pirates get a day of rest for the remaining arms in the bullpen. That helps a lot with arm health over the season, but that seems a little unreliable to bank on, given that this was Mlodzinski's longest start (5 innings) and Harrington's second career outing.

Time will tell how it works out, but it was very exciting to see Harrington find a comfortable role against the Cardinals. This role out of the bullpen may help him adapt to major league hitting more effectively than a world where he's thrown right into the rotation. We can hope, that's for sure.