Pirates surprisingly end star prospect's Opening Day roster chances with latest shuffle

The strongest position group on the Pirates for 2025 is easily the starting rotation. Even with the current projections, there was room for that group to be even better just by bringing up top prospect Bubba Chandler and putting him on the same track as the one Jared Jones followed a season ago.

That will not be happening, it seems, as the Pirates optioned Chandler to minor league camp this week, along with Hunter Barco. That erases any chance that he would earn an Opening Day roster spot in the weeks to come. This won't be the last fans get to watch him pitch this spring, though, as he is officially on the Spring Breakout roster.

It would have been objectively fun to see Chandler be a part of the rotation in Miami. He was recentlyprojected to become the 2025 National League Rookie of the Year by MLB.com, and getting the early-season innings would only embolden his case (though, as we learned from Paul Skenes last year, it's not technically a requirement). Now, Chandler will be a part of a very deep group of prospects in the Indianapolis rotation.

Bubba Chandler is officially not joining the Pirates' Opening Day roster, following his reassignment to minor league camp.

Chandler has not exactly been his dominant self this spring, tossing 2.1 innings while walking four batters, allowing three hits, and surrendering five earned runs. Additionally, he struck out just two batters in this amount of work. Obviously not his best, but this showcase-gone-wrong does not take away from what we know he can do.

Last season with Altoona and Indianapolis, Chandler posted an ERA of 3.08 across 119.2 innings and struck out 148 batters. On top of that, opponents batted .187 against him and he walked hitters at an 8.6% clip to generate a WHIP of 1.02. Those numbers are outstanding, and he did even better once he got to Triple-A.

Chandler could still definitely be a big piece to the Pirates 2025 pitching staff, but that promotion will not come until later in the season. Given his history of forearm troubles, the Pirates are likely to be careful with his workload this season. Maybe we see Chandler on a small inning count to begin the season, similar to Paul Skenes, followed by a promotion to MLB once they (sigh) save a year of service time on him around May.