How the Pittsburgh Pirates can sort out their potential pitching logjam

If there’s one thing opposing fans know about the Pittsburgh Pirates, it’s that they have some outstanding pitching talent. In the major leagues, you have Paul Skenes, Jared Jones, and Mitch Keller bolted into the rotation. The system has a boatload of pitchers between Double-A and Triple-A as well. That has fueled a potentially colossal pitching logjam the Pirates could face within the very near future that they will need to address.

Skenes, Keller, and Jones are essentially guaranteed rotation spots next year. Assuming nobody is injured long-term, the Pirates have one of the most talented top threes in baseball atop their rotation. However, they already have plenty of major league depth right now, too. Bailey Falter has been a nice surprise and has pitched like a quality middle-rotation arm. Luis Ortiz has taken huge steps forward after a poor 2023 rookie season. Veteran southpaw Marco Gonzales has also given the Pirates a handful of solid outings.

As of right now, that is what the Pirates are trotting out there as their starting rotation (minus Jones, since he is currently on the IL). That’s a quality rotation, all of whom are controlled for multiple seasons (aside from Gonzales who has a team option for 2025). Whether or not the Pirates pick that option up remains to be seen.

However, the Pirates just promoted one of their best pitching prospects to Triple-A, that being Thomas Harrington. The former competitive balance round A pick has dominated at Altoona and earned a well-deserved promotion. Bubba Chandler has also been strong at Altoona for most of this season. He may also get a bump to Triple-A before the end of the year. In fact, Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com believes that both could make their debuts before the end of the season.

If that’s the case, that gives the Pirates two more potential starters to turn to at the start of the 2025 season. However, that’s far from the end of the list. Braxton Ashcraft has continued to build off his strong 2023 rebound season. He’s missed the last few weeks, but is on the 40-man roster and is taking huge steps forward. Mike Burrows has also returned to action and looked great at Triple-A in his first game back. The Pirates also have Hunter Barco and Po-Yu Chen at Double-A, both of whom may open 2025 at Triple-A.

On top of all of that, you have yet another potential key component of the Pirates’ starting rotation returning next season from injury. Johan Oviedo pitched 177.2 innings with a 102 ERA+ in 2023. He underwent Tommy John surgery this past December, and while he will miss the entirety of this year, he should be good to go next season at some point, assuming there are no setbacks. 

This exhaustive list is far from complete, as the Pirates have numerous additional intriguing arms to offer. Anthony Solometo entered this season as a top-100 prospect, but has struggled. He could rebound next season. Carlson Reed just got promoted to Greensboro after a strong season with Bradenton. The Pirates have plenty of other younger arms like Zander Mueth and Michael Kennedy, as well as recent draft picks like Josh Hartle, Levi Sterling, and Matt Ager.

Pirates didn't go very far in sorting out pitching traffic jam at MLB trade deadline

The Pirates did not fully address this oncoming issue at the trade deadline. Their biggest moves, specifically the trades that got them Bryan De La Cruz and Isiah Kiner-Falefa, only saw them move one pitching prospect, that being Jun Seok Shim. They did move Patrick Reilly, sending him to the Baltimore Orioles for utility prospect Billy Cook, as well as sending Quinn Priester to the Boston Red Sox for infielder Nick Yorke, but those represented the only noteworthy starting pitchers in the minor league system the Pirates moved.

In short, these are all the potential big-league options the Pirates have that could be in the MLB rotation (past Skenes/Jones/Keller): Ortiz, Falter, Gonzales, Oviedo, Harrington, Burrows, and Chandler. That mix of arms could be a talented rotation in and of itself, let alone once you factor in Skenes, Jones, and Keller leading it.

Obviously, pitching depth is important. You never know when someone is going to get hurt. Just look at Oviedo, who was projected as a huge part of the 2024 rotation. Plus, the chances the Pirates (or any team) have a 100% success rate to make every one of their pitching prospects into quality big-league arms is slim. However, when you can build nearly two whole rotations with your potential options and have some left over, you have to do something. 

With the Pirates’ current lineup and farm system, they should definitely look to move more pitching this offseason. The Pirates didn’t get a good opportunity to do that at this year’s deadline. It was a seller’s market, but not for pitching, it seemed. According to Baseball America, no top 100 prospects were traded, and the only pitching prospect moved who ranked anywhere close to that pedigree was Jake Bloss, who went from Houston to Toronto in the Yusei Kikuchi trade.

This is a good problem for the Pirates to have. Like stated earlier, pitching depth is important. But the Pirates are definitely going to have to figure out who is part of their pitching staff long term, who isn’t, and who they could trade to improve other parts of their team and organization over the coming months.